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RFK Jr. will back the U.S. dollar with gold and Bitcoin if elected
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(Kitco News) -
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has announced a plan to progressively back the United States dollar with “hard assets including Bitcoin and precious metals if elected.
“My plan would be to start very, very small; perhaps 1% of issued T-bills would be backed by hard currency, by gold, silver platinum or bitcoin,” he said, with an annual increase in the allocation depending on the outcome.
Kennedy made the remarks at an event for the Heal-the-Divide political action committee (PAC) on Tuesday evening, which is supporting his presidential run. He said the move could help provide stability to the U.S. economy.
“Backing dollars and U.S. debt obligations with hard assets could help restore strength back to the dollar, rein in inflation, and usher in a new era of American financial stability, peace, and prosperity,” he said.
Kennedy also announced that if elected, his administration would “exempt the conversion of bitcoin to the U.S. dollar from capital gains taxes.” He said the moves to invest in Bitcoin and support the growth of the top cryptocurrency would have far-reaching benefits for the country and would also protect Americans’ financial privacy and freedom.
“The benefits include facilitating innovation and spurring investment, ensuring citizen privacy, incentivizing ventures to grow their business and tech jobs in the United States rather than in Singapore, Switzerland, Germany and Portugal,” Kennedy said. “Non-taxable events are unreportable and that means it will be more difficult for governments to weaponize currency against free speech, which as many of you know, is one of my principal objectives.”
The PAC’s announcement listed nine Bitcoin-related commitments RFK Jr. has made since kicking off his campaign, including ensuring the right to Bitcoin self-custody, the right to run nodes in one’s home, industry-neutral energy regulation for crypto operations, recognizing that Bitcoin is not a security and should not be regulated as one, stopping regulators from penalizing banks who serve crypto firms through operations such as Choke Point 2.0, and preventing the U.S. from adopting a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) “due to its use as a tool for invasive surveillance and control.”
Kennedy said that his positions in favor of Bitcoin and against CBDC and fiat currency in general stem from the ideals of President John F. Kennedy.
“My uncle, President Kennedy, when he was in office, understood the importance of hard currency and the dangers of having pure fiat currency with no other option,” Kennedy said. “He understood the relationship between fiat currency and war, fiat currency and … very, very destructive environmental projects and also these giant aggregations of wealth and the unbalance, the disparities in wealth that are the ultimate yield of every fiat currency.”
"Fiat currency was invented to fund wars,” he continued. “I like base currencies because they make it more difficult, you have to go to the public. You can't just print money to fund the war and tax the public through the hidden tax of inflation. You actually have to go to the public and say, ‘Here's what this war is going to cost.’”
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is running on similar economic proposals, telling Kitco News in May that if elected, he also plans to back the U.S. dollar with a basket of commodities including gold, and that he sees Bitcoin as a way to “opt out” of inflation and currency devaluation.
According to the latest Granite State Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, President Joe Biden currently enjoys 70% support from Democratic primary voters compared to 10% for RFK Jr., with the remaining 20% divided among other candidates and undecideds. The poll was conducted from July 13-17, 2023.
The University of New Hampshire Survey Center’s Republican primary poll conducted during the same timeframe shows Ramaswamy with 5% support among GOP primary voters, trailing former President Donald Trump’s 37% and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ 23%.
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