Treasury shouldn’t renege on keeping Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill | Editorial

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin demurred when asked if he supports his predecessor’s decision to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. “It’s not something that I’m focused on at the moment,” he said Thursday in a CNBC interview: “Right now we have a lot more important issues to focus on.”

Granted, Mnuchin is dealing with such critical issues as a possible showdown on raising the national debt ceiling and the Trump administration’s push for tax cuts. But Mnuchin is wrong if he thinks reneging on a promise to put the first African American woman on paper money is not important.

When the treasury secretary gets around to looking at this issue, let’s hope he recognizes the need to include the images of women and minorities, and not just white men, on the currency of a nation that achieved greatness through the contributions of all.

To do so would reassure those Americans who suspect that President Donald Trump and his administration do not fully respect the rights of women, non-white Americans or those born outside the country.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin demurred when asked if he supports his predecessor’s decision to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. “It’s not something that I’m focused on at the moment,” he said Thursday in a CNBC interview: “Right now we have a lot more important issues to focus on.”

Granted, Mnuchin is dealing with such critical issues as a possible showdown on raising the national debt ceiling and the Trump administration’s push for tax cuts. But Mnuchin is wrong if he thinks reneging on a promise to put the first African American woman on paper money is not important.

When the treasury secretary gets around to looking at this issue, let’s hope he recognizes the need to include the images of women and minorities, and not just white men, on the currency of a nation that achieved greatness through the contributions of all.

To do so would reassure those Americans who suspect that President Donald Trump and his administration do not fully respect the rights of women, non-white Americans or those born outside the country.

Jackson’s image would be retained in a redesigned reverse side of the $20 bill, according to the plan.

Abraham Lincoln and Alexander Hamilton would remain on the front of the $5 and $10 bills, but the reverse of those notes would be redesigned to include depictions of such historic events …

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