To Coin a Phrase: "Thanks, But No Thanks, John McCain."

I've always been grateful for his service to America in uniform, and thought he was at least a little different from some politicians (allegedly being anti-earmark) but in the end I only supported McCain because I supported Sarah Palin.  That's not the point of this, however.

McCain is at it again, now that he's not running for re-election.  The double speak, the progressivism and his lack of respect for the citizens (and our intelligence) is back in full swing.

McCain, along with Senator Tom Harkin (a democrat), have introduced a bill that would eliminate the dollar bill and replace it with a dollar coin.  Perhaps the Chinese prefer carrying coins.

The clever title of the bill is The Currency Optimization, Innovation and National Savings Act, or so cleverly abbreviated: The COINS Act.  It must be necessary and for our own good, even though we've never warmed up to dollar coins in the past.  Don't you want to optimize, innovate and save?

The bill, if it becomes law would force the discontinuation of dollar bills in four years or when the, "circulation of $1 coins exceeds 600 million annually," whichever blessed day comes first.

House RINOs--err, Republicans, put forth a bill in September to do much the same thing: replace the dollar note with a coin.  So, moving forward on this latest scheme would require the House and Senate reconciling their two bills.

Senator McCain proclaimed, "by moving from the costly dollar bill to the dollar coin, we can save real money and show the American taxpayer that we are serious about cutting spending in Washington."

The Senate bill estimates savings of 5.5 billion dollars....over the next THIRTY years.  This comes out to 183 million annually.  I'm impressed.  Real money, indeed.

Meanwhile, if McCain or any of these slick car salesmen actually wanted to save money they could cease the Essential Air Service Program which wastes 200 million tax dollars each year.

What they essentially do is pay airlines to fly planes into more remote areas to keep those places connected via the skies.  This must be one of those "human rights" like getting your own personal computers through the government or citizenship for illegals.

The government often pays up to $4000 in subsidies for a coach ticket.

Take flights out of Ely, Nevada. The Great Lakes Airlines flight to Las Vegas on this occasion carried just one passenger. In total, only 227 passengers flew out of Ely in the entire year of 2010 — paying 70-90 dollars. The taxpayers however paid $4,107 per ticket.

Our fearless representatives in Congress certainly won't bring this 1978 program to an end.  We need to have everything--immediately!  If you move near an airport, you're going to hear noise.  If you move near the railroad, you're going to hear trains.  If you live in a rural area, you'll have to travel greater distances to do your shopping and plan accordingly.  It seems like common sense to me.

If we also want to save money, how about reigning in Obama and FLOTUS's travel expenses.  When a "date night" in NYC with the secret service costs alone at a staggering $11,000 dollars, it makes you wonder why they couldn't just visit the (free) National Zoo or take in a Broadway musical that happens to be on the road and in DC.

We've all but forgotten Obama's half million dollar failed Olympic bid.

What about Michelle Obama's African vacation, where the air transportation alone cost taxpayers nearly a half million dollars?  Not to mention how she frequently travels ahead of Barry, requiring her own plane.

Air Force One is exceptionally costly.  Obama used AFO 172 times in 2010 and the Air Force estimates that it costs us $181,757 each and every flight hour.  Again, this covers just the air travel.

We also have countless billions of wasted dollars being spent on ridiculous earmarks each day.  According to Sen. Tom Coburn, the National Science Foundation alone receives 3 billion dollars for stupid projects like jello-wrestling contests in Antarctica or over a half million to study shrimp on treadmills to combat global warming.

I never thought I'd side with both John Kerry and RINO Scott Brown on any issue but I will support their opposition of this bill.

With extravagant travel expenses in the executive branch and shrimp on treadmills in the earmark arena, Congress is going to have to come up with something better than an unpopular dollar coin policy shift.

With Republican and Democrat support, (sorry) is this the change we can believe in?