Reps Bachmann and Hoekstra Continue to Foster “Global Currency” Conspiracy Theories

Representative Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) continues to fight the good fight against the plan to replace the United States dollar with a new global currency. It’s true that there is no such plan, but her bill to ban the Treasury Department from implementing it already has 31 co-sponsors. And Dave Weigel reports that non-cosponsor Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) might be getting on the bandwagon:

“I’m watching Neil Cavuto,” said Hoesktra, “and I see [Treasury Secretary] Tim Geithner is talking about how he might be OK with a world currency. I don’t think Americans are going to be comfortable with that. You’re going to see things that people perceive as eroding American sovereignty—this is something that’s clearly un-American. I mean, here’s the secretary of the Treasury, and instead of defending the United States and defending our currency, he’s saying he might be open to a world currency. What does that mean? It means turning our currency over to the UN.”

For the millionth time, the proposal under discussion was for other countries—i.e., not the United States—to start moving away from near-exclusive use of the dollar as a reserve currency. This has nothing to do with American sovereignty or the United Nations. And, again, neither congress nor the Treasury Department can force other countries to use the dollar as a reserve asset.

Members of the opposition might want to consider spending more time figuring out what their budget proposals say and less time pushing weird conspiracy theories.