Musk isn’t introducing a novel idea. For years, people have advocated eliminating the penny, as pennies are rarely spent as change. And since the Covid-19 pandemic, more consumers are shopping online or avoiding physical currency altogether .

Elon Musk has promised to find upward of $2 trillion in savings in a federal budget that is projected to spend $7 trillion in 2025 — and if he has to rifle through the nation’s couch cushions to do so,