[Political Junkie Too]

Meanwhile, the government could eventually require you to produce your national ID card (a driver's license with federal standards) at checkpoints, places of commerce, and other places.

I already have one. It's called my passport.

If we issue passports to every US citizen, and require foreigners who are here legally to produce theirs (which they must have had to get in, right?), then the problem is solved, right?

We already have a national bureaucracy in place to manage this. It's the Department of Immigration and the passport offices. We can't tamper with our passports for domestic political purposes or the rest of world will reject our passports as valid entry documents.

-PJ

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

If we issue passports to every US citizen, and require foreigners who are here legally to produce theirs (which they must have had to get in, right?), then the problem is solved, right?

Then the surveillance state will merely require us to show our passports hither and yon (an internal passport system). Who says those cannot be faked by crooks?

[KC_for_Freedom]

If we issue passports to every US citizen, and require foreigners who are here legally to produce theirs (which they must have had to get in, right?), then the problem is solved, right?

Right, I agree. Just got back from a foreign trip, passport was accepted everywhere. Upon return, customs proved no big problem. Was searched alot at airports, they would have found weapons had I been carrying. Procedures in aircraft seemed good too. Whenever the cockpit door was opened, the flight attendants knew in advance and cleared the area and ran interference for the crew coming out to use the potty. I was impressed, they were taking the thing seriously.

PS, the ID card issue is a done deal (that is, we already have it) except for computer tracking which is still a ways from usefullness. Will it catch bad guys? Some I would bet, (the lazy ones) and it will make tracking the bad guys in reverse much easier when they are identified.