Paxety Pages

Back in 1993, President Bill Clinton proposed a "Health Security Card" - he had a cute name for it that I don't remember now. Part of the Republican revolution of 1994 was in reaction against that thing. Liberals, of course, loved the idea. Conservatives pointed out the dangers of data collection by the government and the potential for misuse.

Now the illegal immigration flap is being used by these same conservatives to push for a national identification card that would be produced whenever someone applied for a job. The idea is that a prospective employee would produce a card, the employer would scan it, and in some manner a government agency would signal the employer that the employee was legal to hire.

How is this a good idea. The potential for screw ups is enormous. What if you're a legitimate citizen and the computer loses you? What about theft of records as we've recently seen with veterans.

And it's not much different than the requirements that have been in place since the last amnesty in 1986. Beginning then, one had to produce an original Social Security card to the employer. I had a friend who lived in Georgia and was trying to find work. Roland had lost his card but knew his Social Security number. Not good enough. He went to the local Social Security Administration office to get a new card. They told him he had to have a certified birth certificate to get a new card. His driver's license was not good enough ID. Roland had been born in Boston. To get a birth certificate in Massachusetts, he was told he had to personally go there and fill out forms. Unfortunately, Roland was dead broke, had no car and no money to travel to Boston. He was perfectly willing to work, was clearly an American citizen, had a long work history, but suddenly, due to the new regulations, was unable to get a job. He had to move into a tent in the woods behind Kmart.All the while, the illegal aliens the measure was supposed to stop were buying counterfeit cards on the blackmarket.

Since 9/11, there have been many pushes from all sides of the political aisle for national ID cards. Soon after the attacks, Larry Ellison of Oracle, pushed for cards and offered the software free. Only a year or so before it had come out that Oracle had hired private investigators to snoop on Microsoft in various usavory ways. Those ways included, according to AP, offering Microsoft janitors cash to be allowed to peek at the trash. Ellison admitted personally approving the project and called it his civic duty. Do you really want such a company to have access to your personal data?

At the time, Newt Gingrich opposed the cards on civil liberties grounds. When the Homeland Security Administration was created, the legislation authorizing the agency contained language that made it clear the agency had no authority to create a national identity card.

Now, the illegal alien issue has the previous opponents of cards all in favor of them. Are they really that short-sighted?

I don't believe in a giant conspiracy that runs the world, but watching the issue of national identity cards shift around picking up this interest group and that until it gets enough support to pass almost makes one think there is a hand guiding it uniting conservatives and liberals in support of big government.