[118487] in Cypherpunks
ID card soon mandatory in the USA?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jean-Francois Avon)
Wed Sep 29 17:54:01 1999
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From: "Jean-Francois Avon" <jf_avon@citenet.net>
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Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 17:12:12 -0700
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[pertains to the US of A. For those of you who vaguely contemplate ever going
down there to work...]
You're nobody without your national ID card!
By Tom DeWeese
web posted September 27, 1999
It's the year 2001 and you've dashed to the airport trying to catch a
flight to deal with a family emergency. You're ready to buy a ticket
when you're asked to produce your federally issued national
identification card. You've left it at home. Sorry, you can't get on
board any flight without it.
It's the year 2001 and you've applied for a new job. Human
Resources tells you they cannot consider your resume because it does
not list your national identification number and asks to see your card.
It's the year 2001 and you've just moved your family to a new State
and want to get a driver's license. Without your national
identification
card, they will not issue it. Then you discover that, to get your new
license, you will also have to provide fingerprints and a voice
recognition recording that will be entered into a federal registry so
you
can be identified no matterwhere you are in the nation.
It's the year 2001 and crime is up in your neighborhood. You decide
to purchase a handgun to protect yourself in your home or apartment.
The local police will not issue the documentation required without
seeing your national identification card, nor will be able to purchase
a
weapon without it.
It's the year 2001. You want to open a new bank account. Without
your national identification card, the bank will not do business with
you. When you show them your card, they ask you to sign a
document permitting them to make any information about your
banking activities available to any agency of the federal or state
government that requests it.
If this sounds like something out of
a really scary novel about the way
the federal government is tracking
everyone in the nation from birth to
death, the bad news is that it is not
fiction. It will be fact if the
Republican-led House of
Representatives does not act soon
to stop the implementation of a "Big
Brother" national identification system. The man who can resolve and
end the threat of this invasion of everyone's privacy is Dennis
Hastert,
the Speaker of the House.
When Americans beat back the government takeover of the nation's
health system, they thought they had protected the privacy they
assume applies to their personal medical records. When they
protested the proposed "Know Your Customer" banking laws that
would have established massive federal data bank profiles of every
bank customer, they thought their personal banking activities were
again private matters.
The national identification card, the instrument of every despotic
government in the world, will become a reality unless Speaker Hastert
hears from enough Americans who don't want the Fourth Amendment
of the Constitution rendered meaningless. "The right of the people to
be secure in their persons, papers, and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures" will cease. A national identification card will
make us the slaves of a central government where faceless
bureaucrats can pry into every aspect of our lives and thwart every
action we take.
Tom DeWeese is the president of the American Policy Center,
Herdon, Virginia, a grass roots, activist think tank. It maintains
an Internet site at www.americanpolicy.org.
Part 2
How to stop national ID card
By Rep. Ron Paul, R-TX
© 1998 WorldNetDaily.com
Just prior to my election to Congress, a piece of
legislation was passed which was intended to
stem the tide of illegal aliens coming into our
nation. While the goals were laudable, even the
best of legislative intentions can produce
results which are reprehensible.
Such is the case with an obscure section of the
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act of 1996. This section
authorizes the federal Department of
Transportation to establish national
requirements for birth certificates and drivers'
licenses. The provision, a small part of a major
piece of legislation passed at the end of the
104th Congress, represents an unprecedented
power grab by the federal government and a
threat to the liberties of every American, for it
would essentially transform state drivers'
licenses into national ID cards.
Under the current state of the law, the citizens
of states which have drivers' licenses that do
not conform to the federal standards by
October 1, 2000, will find themselves
essentially stripped of their ability to
participate in life as we know it. On that date,
Americans will not be able to get a job, open a
bank account, apply for Social Security or
Medicare, exercise their Second Amendment
rights, or even take an airplane flight, unless
they can produce a state-issued ID that
conforms to the federal specifications. Further,
under the terms of the 1996
Kennedy-Kassebaum health-care law,
Americans may be forced to present this
federally-approved drivers' license before
consulting a physician for medical treatment!
This situation is decidedly un-American,
contrary to our heritage of individual liberty
and states' rights. The federal government has
no constitutional authority to require
Americans to present any form of identification
before engaging in any private transaction,
such as opening a bank account, seeking
employment, or especially seeing a doctor.
The establishment of a "national" drivers'
license and birth certificate makes a mockery of
the 10th amendment and the principles of
federalism. While no state is "forced" to accept
the federal standards, is it unlikely they will
refuse to comply when such action would
mean none of their residents could get a job,
receive Social Security, leave the state by plane,
or have access to medical care. So rather than
imposing a direct mandate on the states, the
federal government is blackmailing them into
complying with federal dictates. It is for this
reason that I am introducing the Freedom and
Privacy Restoration Act, with Rep. Bob Barr of
Georgia as a cosponsor. As the law stands now,
the government is in a position to
inappropriately monitor the movements and
transactions of every citizen. History shows
that when government gains the power to
monitor the actions of the people, it eventually
uses that power to impose totalitarian controls
on the populace.
What would the founders of this country say if
they knew the limited federal government they
bequeathed to future generations would have
grown to such a size that it claims power to
demand all Americans obtain a
federally-approved ID before getting a job?
They would no doubt be disappointed.
But if the disapproval of the founders is not
sufficient to cause Congress to repeal the
requirements, then perhaps the reaction of the
American people when they discover that they
must produce a federally-approved ID in order
to open a bank account or see the doctor will
turn the tide. Already congressional offices are
being flooded with complaints about the
movement toward a national ID card; imagine
the public's surprise when they realize that not
only is a national ID movement underway, but
will be a reality by October 1, 2000. Despite
pleas for federal correction of societal wrongs,
a national ID, followed surely by a national
police force, is neither prudent nor
constitutional. While it is easy to give in to the
rhetoric of "protecting" children or some other
defenseless group, we must be cautious that in
a rush to provide protection in the short-term,
we do not do permanent damage to our
national heritage of liberty.
As Benjamin Franklin once wrote, those who
would give up essential liberty for temporary
security deserve neither liberty nor security.
Where our security and liberty is concerned,
we must remain constantly vigilant and
uncompromisingly devoted. Ron Paul
represents the 14th District of Texas in the
United States House. He can be contacted at his
Washington office, 203 Cannon HOB,
Washington, DC 20515, or at his web site.
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