'All About the Ronnies, Baby!' Republican Congressman Pushes to Put Reagan on $50 Bill

March 4, 2010 — -- In 1998, rapper P. Diddy introduced the nation to a new phrase. "It's all about the Benjamins, baby," he said, referring to $100 bills with the face of Benjamin Franklin.

Given the tough economic times, perhaps Diddy needs to update his song and aim for a smaller unit of currency.

And if Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., has his way, Diddy may soon be singing about "Ronnies," in honor of the nation's 40th president, Ronald Reagan.

McHenry has introduced legislation that would take President Ulysses S. Grant off of the $50 bill and replace him with Reagan.

"Every generation needs its own heroes," McHenry said in a statement. "One decade into the 21st century, it's time to honor the last great president of the 20th and give President Reagan a place beside Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy."

Franklin D. Roosevelt's profile is on the dime and Kennedy's is on the half-dollar.

As part of his push to get Reagan's portrait on the paper currency, McHenry called him "a modern day statesman, whose presidency transformed our nation's political and economic thinking."

Not so fast, said John Marszalek, executive director and managing editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Association at Mississippi State University.

"There wouldn't be a United States without Ulysses S. Grant, you could argue, because of the Civil War and the tremendous military leader he was even before he became president," Marszalek told ABC News.

Marszalek said Grant, who led the Union Army to victory during the Civil War and later served as the nation's 18th president, deserves to stay right where he is on the $50 bill.

"I don't think it's a good idea because U.S. Grant was the president who was in the White House at a time when the currency was under tremendous stress because of the Civil War," Marszalek said. "It was his administration that began the process to firm up the U.S. currency that allowed the great economic boom of the late 19th, early 20th century."

McHenry's office said public opinion should factor into the decision and as a result, Reagan is frankly more deserving of the currency distinction than Grant.