Ronald Reagan is honored by, among other things, an airport, a freeway, an aircraft carrier, and — ironically for a critic of big government — one of the biggest federal buildings in Washington.
Now, some of the late president’s admirers are launching a new effort to add another honor: printing his likeness on a $50 bill in place of Ulysses S. Grant.
In polls of presidential scholars, Reagan consistently outranks Grant, said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., who introduced legislation to make the change.
But at least one Democrat who serves on the House Financial Services Committee, where the proposal has been sent, isn’t ready to jettison Grant for “someone whose policies are still controversial.”
“Our currency ought to be something that unites us,” said Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif.
Grant admirers, who credit him for leading the Union Army to victory during the Civil War, were none too pleased either.
“I’m very upset,” said Keya Morgan, a New York-based Grant scholar who has a Web page on the 18th president. “I have all the respect in the world for Reagan, but what he accomplished is not anywhere as important as what Ulysses S. Grant accomplished.”
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Article courtesy Los Angeles Times via cleveland.com
