By Peter Funt

Now that the nation has a $1.3 trillion budget, lawmakers can resume debate about whether to pinch pennies.

The threat to do away with pennies and nickels surfaces on Capitol Hill almost every year. Indeed, The Wall Street Journal printed a spirited debate recently by two highly accredited economists on that vexing question. One scholar claimed the coins are “a nuisance,” while the other wrote, “Money is the lubricant that greases the wheels of commerce.”

As so...