US EditionElon Musk's DOGE Targets Costly US Penny for Federal Spending Cuts
- The Department for Government Efficiency criticized the high cost of producing the U.S. penny, noting that taxpayers spent over $179 million in fiscal year 2023 to make 4.5 billion pennies, each costing more than three cents to produce.
- The U.S. Mint's 2023 report showed that the cost of producing a penny rose by 12.9 percent, making it economically inefficient as it costs approximately 3.7 cents to manufacture and distribute each coin.
- There have been calls in Congress about whether to keep the penny in circulation, with Republican Senator Joni Ernst highlighting the federal government's spending on low-value coins.
- The penny's production involves a complex process, and technological advancements may offer future cost-reduction strategies amid debates about its relevance.
74 Articles
74 Articles
Musk’s Efficiency Drive Sets Sights on the Penny
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is targeting the U.S. penny, or the cent, as something to eliminate to save costs. “The penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost US taxpayers over $179 million in FY2023,” the department wrote in a post on Musk’s X platform on Jan. 21. “The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennies in FY2023, around 40 percent of the 11.4 billion coins for circulation produced. Penny [or 3 cents!] for your tho…
Elon Musk wants to kill the penny. The little coin has won this battle before.
Elon Musk has promised to find upward of $2 trillion in savings in a federal budget that is projected to spend $7 trillion in 2025 — and if he has to rifle through the nation’s couch cushions to do so, so be it.
Penny pinching: Elon Musk looks at the cent to cut costs
President Donald Trump has charged Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with slashing large portions of the federal budget, and one idea Musk has proposed targets a longstanding grievance among politicians: the penny. DOGE (which is not actually a government agency but rather an advisory group) has suggested that stopping the production of the penny would save American taxpayers millions.The group said as much in a post o…
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