Et Tu, Lew?
Posted on June 19, 2015
"US10dollarbill-Series 2004A". Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
The Department of the Treasury building is directly east of the White House. Standing in front of that stately building is a proud statue of Alexander Hamilton, the first and most important of the 76 Secretaries of that most important of government departments.
His shoulders are slightly stooped today. And a knife is protruding out of his back.
Thomas Jefferson must be very, very happy.
Hamilton and Jefferson hated each other. They fought like cats and dogs in George Washington’s cabinet.
Jefferson fought for agrarianism, Hamilton for modernity. Jefferson didn’t trust New York financiers. Hamilton was their champion.
Hamilton was the man who fought to expand America’s debt, so that it could become a truly great power. He wanted a more centralized, more powerful Federal government. He saw the possibilities of the new nation and he built the intellectual framework to make it happen.
Hamilton was a bastard. Really. He was born of out wedlock. He was a self-made man and probably an illegal immigrant. But he was brilliant, and hard-working, and visionary.
More than any other Founding Father, Hamilton was the epitome of the American Dream.
This is the guy that has adorned our ten dollar bill since 1929.
And now Jack Lew wants to replace the man most responsible for our financial system with a woman to be named later.
What a crock!
He won’t say who.
Maybe he thinks it should be Janet Yellen.
If anybody wants America to assume more debt than Hamilton, it’s Yellen.
Or how about Marilyn Monroe? She got as close to a President as anybody else without actually being a First Lady.
Or maybe Lew wants his former boss’s wife, Hillary Clinton, to get the spot, once she gets to the Oval Office. Maybe that’s why he is staying mum.
The Susan B. Anthony dollar coin was a huge bust. That was the last time the government tried to be politically correct when it came to our currency.
I wouldn't be surprised if Lew made this announcement as part of an effort to spark a political debate to somehow help the Hillary campaign. I certainly wouldn't put it past him.
I am not opposed to honoring a prominent female on a piece of our currency.
But I think the idea of replacing Alexander Hamilton with a woman to be named later is ridiculous.