First this isn’t even close to a national ID card. It’s a federal regulation on the states, but not even close to federal registry.
Second, states tend to have ID contracts that run for 5 years. That means that will take at least that long to roll out.
Third, most of this is already in place. Most states have digital photograph and anticounterfeiting features are becoming standard. Even undefined “machine-readable technology, with defined minimum data elements” has been around for quite some time, as I recall a mag stripe on my old MN DL from more than 8 years ago, and there’s a barcode on the back of current MA DL that, IIRC, contains the digital image of my DL.
The RFID chip would be somewhat more of a challenge, and not overly useful. Besides which, it’s speculation on the part of the authors of the article, and not listed in the bill
Frankly, I’d be far more sympathetic to this complaint if you were consistent about it. But it seems to me you support a number of federal mandates that are not backed by a specific piece of text in the Constitution.
As long as things were being interpreted into the Constitution that you agreed with, there was no problem with this method. Now that someone is in charge who is willing to interpret the Constitution in a way you don’t like – now you’re suddenly concerned about what the document actually says.
In Germany, so I’ve heard from people who have been there, everybody, without exception, has their address registered with the local police, and you’re required by law to notify the police immediately if you move; and everybody carries a state-issued ID card. Yet we still think of Germany as a “free country.” What’s the big deal? You have zero privacy anyway, get over it. And nobody has a civil right to live off the radar screen or hide from the government.
I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, some states have been pretty lax in their issuance of ID’s, giving them to folks who shouldn’t get them. Some of the September 11th hijackers got fraudulant drivers licenses at a DMV branch in Arlington, VA, right across the street from the apartment I was living in at the time. When the Pentagon was hit that day, my office filled up with smoke.
Virginia has since cleaned up its act and prosecuted some people responsible for the fraud. This, however, hasn’t solved the problem everywhere.
On the other hand, there is a danger here if this ID is seen as some kind of magic fix. If it now is used to open all doors, it will be the one credential terrorists need to get. If they have it, and if it is not questioned, their actions won’t be significantly impeded.
A certain amount of difficulty in monitoring citizens maintains a certain minimum cost of enforcing laws. That serves the desirable purpose of limiting government control.
A modern ID system is the equivalent of a squirt of WD40 on your brake pads – it removes frictional resistance that is there for a damn good reason.
I’m not a self identified conservative or liberal, but I’m all for a national ID card. It’s absolutely absurd that as a technologically advanced nation, we don’t have one, in this complex, data heavy, verification necessary world.
Horseshit. We have checks and balances, separation of powers, and the Bill of Rights to limit government. But nobody designs a government with the intention of building inefficiency into the system. Such inefficiency as exists is there only because nobody’s yet figured out how to get rid of it.
While I don’t disagree, I don’t think there has been enough debate on this issue. What kind of information do we allow to be tied to this National ID Card (NIDC)? How do we, as a society determine who has access to that information, and under what circumstances? What standards for the card itself (materials, information presented, that sort of thing)? How are the inevitable delays and breakdowns in communication handled?
I can keep adding to that list, but what really interests me about this is the way it seems to polarize people. The only people I know who tend be rather ambivalent about the concept of NIDCs are people who work in the ID industry. Like I said above, I do think that a NIDC would be a useful tool, though I’m certainly not willing to see one put in place until I know how it will be used, and how that use will be controlled.
Put the Tribunate in charge of issuing the national ID card, and give it control over access to all information linked thereby. Put the Tribunate in charge of the Census, too; people will be more ready to answer personal questions honestly that way.
I’m against national ID cards because I think it’s pretty pointless. But I find it kind of mind boggling that people here are (mis)quoting Ben Franklin and arguing that we’re giving up “essential liberty” if the government says that everyone should have what basically amounts to a driver’s license. I wonder how many of those that object to national ID cards already have driver’s licenses or passports.
But, as I said, I don’t really see how it will “purchase” any additional safety either. We’ve already seen that terrorists can get driver’s licenses and passports, through fraud when necessary. I don’t see why national ID cards will be a more foolproof way of ferretting out the bad guys.
Actually, many people think that the former IS sinister, or at least completely wrongheaded, considering that SSNs are NOT supposed to be used for ID purposes…
I think having an all-in-one card will make identity theft easier, not harder. Right now, if someone jacks your bank number, you only have to get that cleared up. Having all your documents in different computer systems handled by different government bureaucracies and companies ensures that only part of your identity will be stolen at any one time. But if it’s all together, then all someone has to do is steal the code for your card, manufacture a new one (and trust me, no matter how watermarked that thing is someone will come up with a perfect forgery within six months), and they have ALL your information in one place. I don’t see why people think having a national ID card will help prevent identity theft.
And if a terrorist wants a national ID card, they’re going to get one. How stupid do they think terrorists are?