We must stop the move toward a national ID card system. All states are preparing to issue new driver’s licenses embedded with “standard identifier” data – a national ID. A national ID with new tracking technologies means we’re heading into an Orwellian world of no privacy. Ron Paul voted against the Real ID Act in March of 2005.
Ron Paul’s Opposition to the National ID Card
Legislation brought forward to stop National ID (July 15, 1998)
In response to a national outcry against Department of Transportation rules to establish a national ID system by the first of October, in the year 2000, US Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) on Wednesday introduced the Freedom and Privacy Restoration Act, HR4217. Rep. Bob Barr (R-Georgia) is an original cosponsor of the bill.
Paul leads effort to stop National ID (June 24, 1999)
Calling on the federal government to end its war on the privacy rights of American citizens and the prerogatives of state governments, US Rep. Ron Paul (R, Texas) is leading a bipartisan team attempting to stop the national ID card, which is set for implementation on Oct. 1, 2000.
National ID killed by House (October 1, 1999)
In approving the House-Senate compromise on the Transportation Appropriations legislation Friday, the House of Representatives killed an ill-conceived plan that would have prevented Americans from getting new jobs, boarding airplanes or exercising their Second Amendment rights without holding a National ID card. The National ID was slated to go into effect Oct. 1, 2000.
Reject the National ID Card (September 6, 2004)
The much-hailed 9/11 Commission report released in July recommends a federal identification card and, worse, a “larger network of screening points” inside the United States. Does this mean we are to have “screening points” inside our country where American citizens will be required to “show their papers” to government officials? It certainly sounds that way!
Paul Denounces National ID Card (December 7, 2004)
Congressman Ron Paul today denounced the national ID card provisions contained in the intelligence bill being voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives, while urging his colleagues to reject the bill and its new layers of needless bureaucracy. “National ID cards are not proper in a free society,” Paul stated. “This is America, not Soviet Russia. The federal government should never be allowed to demand papers from American citizens, and it certainly has no constitutional authority to do so.”
A National ID Bill Masquerading as Immigration Reform (February 9, 2005)
I rise in strong opposition to HR 418, the REAL ID Act. This bill purports to make us safer from terrorists who may sneak into the United States, and from other illegal immigrants. While I agree that these issues are of vital importance, this bill will do very little to make us more secure. It will not address our real vulnerabilities. It will, however, make us much less free. In reality, this bill is a Trojan horse. It pretends to offer desperately needed border control in order to stampede Americans into sacrificing what is uniquely American: our constitutionally protected liberty. What is wrong with this bill? The REAL ID Act establishes a national ID card by mandating that states include certain minimum identification standards on driver’s licenses. It contains no limits on the government’s power to impose additional standards. Indeed, it gives authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security to unilaterally add requirements as he sees fit.
National ID Cards Won’t Stop Terrorism or Illegal Immigration (May 9, 2005)
This REAL ID Act establishes a massive, centrally-coordinated database of highly personal information about American citizens: at a minimum their name, date of birth, place of residence, Social Security number, and physical characteristics. The legislation also grants open-ended authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security to require biometric information on IDs in the future. This means your harmless looking driver’s license could contain a retina scan, fingerprints, DNA information, or radio frequency technology.
A National ID Card? Outrageous! (March 10, 2010)
Ron Paul explains on Fox News why he is opposed to a national ID card: “To me it violates the whole principles of privacy, the principles of the Constitution, the principles of the Republic and to me that’s a gross distortion of what we should be doing. It’s part of an authoritarian society and dictatorships have this but not a republic. We’re not supposed to have that…”
I do not support the National ID card for many reasons, but here is the one that is the most practical and that I think most people will understand, especially if they have grown up around tech-savvy teens or a computer whiz.
No system is safe from hackers. You can put up all the encryption, firewalls, and code up that you desire, but there will ALWAYS be someone who can hack it, and compromise the information stored within. While I believe that most people are good, all it takes is ONE malevolent person to completely screw up the system.
It's safer to keep ID methods more localized, if a state's ID system somehow gets compromised, it's only them affected, rather than the entire country. Better some, than all.
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