By H. Sterling Burnett, KERA 90.1 Commentator
Dallas, TX – The issue is a national identity card. In light of September 11, should one be required? Opponents hear the crunch of Nazi jackboots and the request for identity papers. Supporters see bomb-sneakered Islamic fundamentalists strolling onto airplanes.
William Safire calls a mandatory U.S. ID card for every American "the holy grail of snoopery." Indeed, Americans across the political spectrum instinctively reject the idea, including the ACLU, the NRA, liberal Congressman Barney Frank, and conservative Congressman Bob Barr. To many, the idea of the government tracking their movements, looking over their financial and health data, and asking them for proof of identity at Madonna concerts and NFL playoff games is an Orwellian nightmare.
There are two concerns with a national I.D. card: who has access to the database's personal information; and will the information be accurate?
For any national ID system to work, there must be a comprehensive national database. It must include all 286 million Americans and be accessible to the police, FBI, INS, and airport security personnel at every airport in the country and abroad. Otherwise the system is of little use.
The potential for government abuse cannot be overstated. During World War II, the government breached the confidentiality of Census Bureau information to help move Japanese-Americans into internment camps. More recently, in 1995, more than 500 IRS agents were caught illegally snooping into the tax records of thousands of Americans, including their neighbors and celebrities.
And what about the private sector? Surely your bank will want you to swipe your national ID card when you apply for a loan, as will your life insurer and health care providers. And computer hackers would look upon breaking into the national I.D. database as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
And what if any of the data on your card were mistaken - a digit is transposed or your middle name is misspelled? You may be rejected at the airport-screening machine, your bank and ATM, your office building, the license bureau, etc. One bureaucratic mistake could turn people into outcasts, unable to do anything until Washington corrects its error - and how long and how many forms later would that take?
Experience suggests such errors would be frequent. A 1995 Cato Institute study found the error rate in the Social Security Administration database to be from 5% to 20%, for the IRS, between 10% to 20%.
Recently, House minority leader Richard Gephardt said, "We are in a new world. [September 11] will change the balance between freedom and security." If this is true, haven't the terrorists won?
Certainly, increased security to protect us from terrorists is a good idea. But extending it to a national identity card runs counter to the culture of individual liberty that has not only been the hallmark of our society, but a prime factor in its two centuries of success. Benjamin Franklin opined in 1759, "They that . . . give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." And I would add, that they will not long have either.
H. Sterling Burnett is Senior Fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas.