 Continuing a pattern of attempts to assert South Carolina's independence from the federal government, State Sen. Lee Bright, R-Roebuck, has introduced legislation that backs the creation of a new state currency that could protect the financial stability of the Palmetto State in the event of a breakdown of the Federal Reserve System. The legislation calls for the creation of a joint legislative subcommittee which would study the “the need, means, and schedule for establishing such an alternative currency.” 
 
 Others in the state are less than impressed with the idea. “If folks lose faith in the dollar, we need to have some kind of backup.” 
 
 The legislation cites the rights reserved to states in the Constitution and Supreme Court rulings in making the case that South Carolina is within its rights to create its own currency. Bright’s proposed legislation states that “many widely recognized experts predict the inevitable destruction of the Federal Reserve System’s currency through hyperinflation in the foreseeable future; and … 
 
 South Carolina can avoid or at least mitigate many of the economic, social, and political shocks to be expected to arise from hyperinflation, depression, or other economic calamity related to the breakdown of the Federal Reserve System only through the timely adoption of an alternative sound currency that the state’s government and citizens may employ without delay in the event of the destruction of the Federal Reserve System’s currency. “It’s a waste of time; it’s a waste of resources,” says Phil Bailey, direct of the state Senate Democratic Caucus. “I mean who’s paying for this study?
– South Carolina may soon have its own currency, if one state senator has his way. Republican Lee Bright introduced legislation that would back the creation of such a currency, because, “If folks lose faith in the dollar, we need to have some kind of backup,” he tells the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. His resolution calls for a study on the subject, and argues that a state currency could protect South Carolina if the strained Fed breaks down. Talking Points Memo notes that South Carolinians have asserted independence from the federal government in other ways over the last two years. The legislation asserts that creating its own currency (which could consist of “gold or silver, or both”) is a right afforded to the states by the Constitution and Supreme Court rulings, and claims that “many widely recognized experts predict the inevitable destruction of the Federal Reserve System's currency through hyperinflation in the foreseeable future.” But the director of the state Senate Democratic Caucus says the bill is just “a waste of time; it's a waste of resources. I mean who's paying for this study? Will they be paid in actual dollars or gold doubloons?”