Maxine Waters and Elizabeth Warren threw a fit when Trump killed the penny.
DeSantis just made their tantrum irrelevant.
He signed the law Monday that tells Florida exactly what to do now that the penny is gone – and it takes effect immediately.
What Warren and Waters Actually Did
When Trump ordered the U.S. Mint to stop producing pennies last year, the outrage from the left was instant.
Warren and Waters fired off a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, and the U.S. Mint accusing Trump of making an "abrupt and unilateral decision" that would harm low-income Americans.
They demanded a federal plan by December 12, 2025.
They called it a "penny shortage."
The U.S. Mint was losing $85 million a year making a coin that cost nearly four cents to produce.
https://twitter.com/FCLedger/status/2054022968158605788?s=20
Trump stopped the bleeding.
Warren and Waters called it a crisis.
DeSantis Didn't Wait for Washington to Figure It Out
While Democrats were writing angry letters about a coin shortage, Florida was solving the actual problem.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed SB 1074 Monday without a press conference – the signature of a governor who treats competent governance as routine.
The law is simple.
Cash transactions ending in 1 or 2 cents round down to zero.
Ending in 3 or 4? Round up to 5 cents.
Ending in 6 or 7? Round down to 5 cents.
Ending in 8 or 9? Round up to the nearest dime.
Credit card transactions are unaffected, official prices don't change, and sales tax calculations are untouched.
This is exactly what Canada did when it eliminated its own penny in 2013.
Canadian businesses adapted within weeks.
Nobody in Canada is still writing letters about a penny shortage.
The Left's Penny Problem Is Really About Something Else
Here's what Warren and Waters never told you.
Experts have been calling for the end of the penny for decades.
Philip Diehl – a Democrat who ran the U.S. Mint under Bill Clinton – spent years arguing the penny needed to go.
He tried to eliminate it himself while he was director and couldn't get it done.
Canada did it. Australia did it. New Zealand did it.
https://twitter.com/10TampaBay/status/2054215908982137109?s=20
Every serious economist who looked at the numbers reached the same conclusion.
But the moment Trump made the call, Warren and Waters suddenly discovered the penny was essential to protecting low-income Americans.
This is what reflexive opposition looks like.
It has nothing to do with the penny.
It has everything to do with the inability to let Trump be right about anything – even something a Clinton-era Mint director had been demanding for thirty years.
Florida Shows the Rest of the Country How It's Done
Rep. Fiona McFarland, who sponsored the House version of the bill, put it plainly during the legislative session.
"We will soon get to the point, as pennies are no longer in circulation, where your customer won't have the proper amount of pennies to pay," she said.
Sen. Don Gaetz carried the Senate version.
DeSantis signed it.
Problem identified. Law passed. Done.
Warren and Waters got their December 12th deadline and a letter back from the Fed.
Florida got a law that works.
Sources:
- Gabrielle Russon, "Gov. DeSantis signs legislation to round up or down a nickel as pennies fade away," Florida Politics, May 11, 2026.
- "Ranking Members Maxine Waters and Elizabeth Warren Urge Federal Agencies to Provide Immediate Guidance," U.S. Senate Banking Committee, December 3, 2025.
- "Dems demand answers from Fed, Treasury amid penny shortage," American Banker, December 3, 2025.
- U.S. Mint, Annual Report, 2024.
