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National NewsConservative News
May I See Your Papers Please?
By Brad Taylor
Posted on: May 6, 2005
Americans are finally making the leap where they are trading their liberty for "security." President Bush is expected to sign an $82 billion emergency military spending bill that will in turn require a national ID card for all Americans.
As I stated in my previous article, the national ID scheme is being sold as a way to curb illegal immigration and to secure our country. However, the truth is the national ID cards will provide neither benefit to Americans. In three years, you will be required to have a federally issued ID card to travel on an airplane, establish a bank or brokerage account, collect government payments, or use any federally provided service.
Representative Ron Paul stated, "Those who are willing to allow the government to establish a Soviet-style internal passport system because they think it will make us safer are terribly mistaken. Subjecting every citizen to surveillance and "screening points" will actually make us less safe, not in the least because it will divert resources away from tracking and apprehending terrorists and deploy them against innocent Americans!"
The new law, referred to as the "Real ID Act," empowers the Department of Homeland Security to design the new federal standards for this ID card. You may be compelled to submit a fingerprint, a retinal scan, or other biometric data. The ID card must also be machine readable, meaning it will have a magnetic strip, a computer chip, or a radio frequency ID (RFID) chip.
The use of an RFID feature in the ID card would permit the government to track citizens without their consent. In fact, thieves or terrorists could use hand-held readers to identify U.S. citizens anywhere they travel. Such readers are available for $500 to several thousand dollars, depending on the level of sophistication.
Representative Paul also argued, "The federal government has no constitutional authority to require law-abiding Americans to present any form of identification before they engage in private transactions. Instead of forcing all Americans to prove to law enforcement that they are not terrorists, we should be focusing our resources on measures that really will make us safer."
More of Representative Paul's comments are available here.
You have some time to prepare for this transition, but in May 2008 you should be prepared to respond to "May I see your papers, please!"
The Federal Monopoly, Friday, May 6, 2005.
National ID Will Not Improve Security, Friday, February 25, 2005.
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