Poll: 80% oppose Reagan on $50 bill

Poll: 80% oppose Reagan on $50 bill
Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune
7:13 p.m. CDT, May 17, 2010
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-talk-reagan-50-dollar-bill-0518-20100517,0,5716388.story


Rep. Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican, wants Ronald Reagan to replace Ulysses Grant on the $50 bill. Almost 8 in 10 Americans oppose the idea, a new poll shows.

Reagan, a Republican, was the "last great president of the 20th century" who "rallied the nation and won the Cold War," McHenry said in an interview. McHenry proposed a bill March 2 seeking to redesign the $50 bill and substitute the 40th president's image for the likeness of the 18th, a Civil War hero.

McHenry's bill is widely opposed, according to a Marist College poll. Seventy-nine percent said the suggestion is a bad idea, compared with 12 percent who supported the plan. Nine percent said they are unsure.

Eighty-three percent of Democrats oppose the idea and more than 7 in 10 Republicans do not back the switch.

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The survey of 956 U.S. residents was released late last month and had an error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, pollsters said.

McHenry insists the effort is "no slight against President Grant." The legislation, which has 17 co-sponsors, is unlikely to come up for a vote during this Congress, according to Parker Poling, a spokeswoman for McHenry.

McHenry's legislation coincides with plans to celebrate Reagan's 100th birthday next year. According to John Heubusch, executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, the plans include a Reagan-themed float in the New Year's Day Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif., and the introduction of a Reagan centennial stamp.

Reagan died in 2004 at the age of 93.