The right to use cash and cash substitutes is working its way through the 88th Texas Legislature in 2023.  The filed bills are SJR 67 by State Senator Tan Parker and HJR 146 by State Representative Giovani Capriglione.

An essential part of keeping Texas strong and free from federal interference is the protection of the financial health and privacy of Texans.  An unstable dollar can destroy the wealth that Texans have spent a lifetime producing.  Texas cannot allow global financial elites to force Texans to use and pay for their services, leaving all of their financial eggs in one basket, subject to devaluation and confiscation.  And Texas cannot allow their financial privacy to be destroyed being forced into having every financial transaction they make subject to scrutiny by prying government officials, competitors, and employers.

But the global elites and powerful interests have been telling us for a number of years now that they plan to do exactly that to Texans – destroy the wealth we hold in the U.S. dollar, force us into using financial services, and creating the ultimate tool for the police state which will end financial privacy.

Fortunately, Texas now has a way to head off this looming disaster.  We have the proposal called the Right to Use Cash and Cash Substitutes.  The proposal is to add to the Texas Bill of Rights an explicit recognition of the natural right to keep and store our wealth in the form we think best and to use any medium of exchange that people mutually agree upon.

Here is more background the proposal.

Why Texas Needs an Addition to the Texas Bill of Rights 

• The financial press is reporting that global interests are pushing to force Americans and others around the world to use their services – to what the bankers call a “cashless society” or "war on cash" which would include:
  • Forced use of financial institutions for holding legal currency
  • Elimination of physical paper currency, or at the very least elimination of large denomination bills
  • Criminalization of holding of cash or its transport across borders.
  • Creation of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) and forcing us to use them.
• The choice to hold the wealth one has earned over a lifetime in the form of one’s choice is a natural right which no government should violate. As such, the right to hold and use cash and cash substitutes falls under one of those rights that should be protected under the Ninth Amendment.
• This natural right needs explicit codification and protection in the Texas Bill of Rights to help stop the assault on the financial and privacy rights of Texans.  Explicit recognition in the Texas Bill of Rights strengthens the Ninth Amendment case.
• In 2016, India removed its 1000 and 500 rupee notes from circulation within 48 hours, creating chaos throughout India and destroying the life savings of millions of Indians.

The proposed addition to the Texas Bill of Rights

The right of the people to own, hold, and use a mutually agreed upon medium of exchange, including  cash, coin, bullion, digital currency, or scrip, when trading and contracting for goods and services shall not be infringed.  No government shall prohibit or encumber ownership or holding of any form or any amount of money or other currency. Nothing in this section shall be construed as restricting this state or a political subdivision of this state from only accepting payments made or entering into transactions using certain mediums of exchange.

Discussion

Reducing the risk of financial insecurity for Texans should be a key priority.  Enabling Texans to prepare for and weather financial storms by using the media of exchange and store of wealth that best meets their needs will enable the Texas economy and Texans to better thrive through whatever the future holds.

Being forced to use financial services instead of storing and using the currency of choice builds the police state because it allows governments to:

• See every financial transaction you make, violating any right to financial privacy.
• Easily confiscate the wealth of Texans via Cyprus-style “bail-ins” or CBDC expiration.

If anything unites Texans across party and ideological lines (from Occupy Wall Street to the Tea Party), it is a dislike of the use of government to benefit out-of-state financial elites at the expense of Texans.

To become part of the Texas Bill of Rights, a Texas legislative resolution must receive bi-partisan two thirds support of both the Texas House and Texas Senate to be put in front of the voters who must approve it on November 7, 2023 by a majority.

Click here to download a PDF one pager on this bill.