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May 22, 2007

Super Urgent need to slay REAL ID Trojan Horse

Today’s Downsizer Dispatch . . .

Please share with concerned friends . . .

Subject: Super urgent REAL ID Trojan horse needs to be slain

DISCLAIMER: If you think the claims we make below are exaggerated or unfounded, you are free, as always, to sit this one out. But we hope you will remember our warnings. We won’t say “we told you so” when the things we predict below actually happen, but we do hope you will remember, when the time comes, that we did in fact warn you in advance.

Here’s what’s at stake . . .

The immigration controversy, and the legislation it has spawned, has become a Trojan Horse for imposing the REAL ID Act on all Americans, and entangling all of us in a bureaucratic nightmare of apocalyptic proportions.

Think for a moment about all the problems there have been with the terrorist watch list. Think about all the innocent Americans who have been placed on this list for no discernible reason, and the trouble people have had getting off this list. Now . . .

Imagine this same kind of bureaucratic nightmare expanding to entangle every job and business in America. This is what the REAL ID provisions of the new Senate Immigration Bill (S. 1348) will bring about.

The offending section is Title III which will require . . .

Every employer in America to pre-screen every worker for every job they’re ever offered for the rest of their lives, regardless of the size of the business, or the job.

The cost to the federal government ALONE is estimated by the feds themselves (so you know it’s low) at $11.7 billion per year.

The costs to businesses may be even higher. This will raise the cost of hiring new people and foster unemployment. But that’s only the beginning of the trouble.

Every American will have to produce a Real ID license to get a job – no exceptions. I think we can see where this is going . . .

Proving our identity, and proving that we are innocent, is about to become a requirement for living.

Taking this approach could certainly solve the problem of prison over-crowding, because under REAL ID deadbeat Moms and Dads, drunk drivers, jaywalkers, and anybody else who does anything wrong at any time, can all be punished simply and quickly, without prison, and perhaps without trial, simply by turning them into a non-person in terms of the required employment background check.

But let’s say you don’t ever do anything wrong, but you still end up with a black mark next to your name anyway, just like what has happened to people with the terrorist watch list? How long will it take, and how much will it cost, to get your name cleared?

And what if you can’t get your name cleared, simply because of bureaucratic inefficiency, like with the terrorist watch list?

Will you starve because you can’t get a job? And what about your family? Your kids?

Meanwhile, under these provisions, the black market gets a further government “price support” for fake IDs. Anything can be faked. If a thing can be made by government it can be forged by criminals. This includes birth certificates and other documents required to obtain a so-called REAL ID.

Politicians who talk about tamper proof ID cards are idiots babbling nonsense.

But it gets worse. The federal government is trying to box in the states that have rejected the REAL ID program by making all of the citizens of those states effectively illegal persons!

Plus, new federal funding for state programs will only be given to states that comply with REAL ID. The Feds are trying to both bribe and coerce the states into complying.

What’s worse, most of the Senate may not even realize these provisions are in the immigration bill, or what their impact would be. The bill is huge, and complicated. As of this writing it hasn’t even been printed yet, and it’s very unlikely the Senators will even read the bill before they pass it into law.

You’ve been warned. If you want to heed the warning please send a message to both the House and Senate telling them to strip out all REAL ID related provisions from any immigration bill they are considering. You can do so here.

Thank you for being a DC Downsizer.

Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

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