Congressman Ron Paul explains on Fox News why he is opposed to a national ID card.
Channel: Fox News
Date: 03/10/2010
Transcript
Megyn Kelly: With President Obama taking on not only health care reform but another controversial issue: immigration reform, and the key meeting at the White House tomorrow could be the first step toward that reform and for some very big changes for every American worker. Senators Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham, bipartisan that is, are set to sit down with President Obama tomorrow, discussing plans for a National Identification Card. Now this thing is meant to crack down on illegal workers but our guest says it could crack down on you and your privacy. Congressman Ron Paul is a Texas Republican, he is opposed to this card. Congressman, good afternoon to you.
Ron Paul: Good afternoon, nice to be with you.
Megyn Kelly: It’s a great pleasure to have you. All right, so what’s the problem with the National ID Card? Because its proponents say “this is it, this is the thing that’s gonna finally help us stop illegal immigrants from coming in here and taking jobs.”
Ron Paul: Well, we do have a problem with illegal immigration, but I would say the problems of every American citizen carrying their papers wherever they go is a much worse problem than illegal immigration. Besides you can take care of illegal immigration otherwise, but people over the decades now in this country now and there have been some who have wanted this National ID Card and they’re looking for every opportunity to do it. And this is it. I mean, who knows what will come of it. My guess is they’ll probably have a GPS chip in there so that they can measure everybody, every instant, no matter where they go. So 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…
Megyn Kelly: OK, but tell me how, tell me how it’s invasive because what Schumer and Graham are proposing, according to what I read, is your ID card would have either your fingerprint, your thumbprint on there or will have a reading of the veins on the back of your hand and you’d have to be scanned by your prospective employer. In that way, if it came out that you were illegal they would catch you by the scan. How does that, I mean it’s not really GPS, how does the scan of your fingerprint bother you?
Ron Paul: No, no. Someday it may do this, but why should you have to do this? And they said as well the equipment to scan your hand or your card is going to cost about $800. And I say, well, what about somebody who might only have one or two employees and they don’t want to buy the equipment? “Oh you can go to a government office to do this.”
Can you imagine if the post office takes this up and you stand in line to take your potential employee over and try to get them scanned? I mean, the whole notion of us carrying our papers in everything that we do, every job we get, it will be a National Identifying Card. One thing that Graham, I think, argued, “well we already have Social Security cards.”
Megyn Kelly: Right.
Ron Paul: Well, I have a Social Security card that says, “Not to be used for identification purposes.” That’s what the original Social Security card said. And a Social Security card—
Megyn Kelly: What about a driver’s license? Virtually all of have one of those.
Ron Paul: Yeah, but I don’t have to have a driver’s license to get a job. You know, I didn’t have to have it to come to Congress. I didn’t have to show that if I could come to Congress without…
Megyn Kelly: But why not, Congressman, you know, the people who are fired up about this, yes they recognize that it would result in somewhat of a loss of civil liberties but they are very concerned about illegal immigration and you said there are other ways of controlling it but we’re not doing it.
Ron Paul: Well, that’s a failure of enforcing our laws. And one of the problems that we have is that we have a failed economic system that makes immigrants a threat to individuals because of our weak economy, so if we had a decent economy we’d probably be begging people to come and work because there would be… and quite frankly, a couple of years ago I had as many people come to my office looking for immigrants to come in to work as I did people screaming and hollering because we had too many.
Megyn Kelly: What do you think — I’m sorry to interrupt, but I wanted get your thoughts on this before I let you go. What do you think the government might do to us if we all had a National ID Card?
Ron Paul: Well, they would monitor everything that we do and surveillance, the lack of privacy. It’s always for good purposes. Everything is for good and they’re going to get rid of illegal immigration and they’re going to find the criminals but they’re also going to monitor every single person, every single thing they do. It’s sort of this idea of why not have cameras every place on every street corner because we’ll catch the bad guys. Why don’t they have cameras in our house in case there’s child-beating or wife-beating? I mean, that’s why one thing leads to another. You either believe in freedom or you don’t. If you think you need supervision and surveillance constantly by your government, and right now the degree of confidence and trust in our government is very very low. To turn this additional tool over to the government, to me, should outrage the American people and so far the people I hear from are outraged.
Megyn Kelly: So interesting to listen to your thoughts on that. The meeting happens tomorrow at the White House. The White House has taken no position on it thus far, but Graham’s a Republican, Schumer’s a Democrat. We’ll see whether they get it through this time. Congressman Ron Paul, thank you so much for your thoughts on it.
Ron Paul: Thank you.
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This is an outrage. Our government simply cann’t be trusted. Sorry, eeeeeegh!!! you FAIL government.
Don’t tolerate this nonsense. Stand for your right.
I swear to god, I will die in the name of freedom if our government ever went so far as to force us (EVENTUALLY, IF THIS CRAP REALLY PASSES) to implant a tracking device to track us.
HELL NO!!!
I will fight to the bitter end. Alone if I have too, I don’t care.
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This whole national ID card frightens the heck out of me, it reminds me of the Orwel novels where “big brother” is watching everything you do. As a Christian it also sounds like end-of-times in that we will each be required to take the mark in order to engage in commerce.
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Fred the Protectionist
“I don’t think you neocons (libertarians) realize what you sound like”.
Obviously we do not sound like “two faced, Racist Bigots”, or you would be agreeing with us. Maybe we sound like “Liberal Nazis”? No that would require you to agree with us as well.
I know Freddie, we sound like true Americans that are feed up with ignorant bigoted trash bashing the Constitutional principles this Nation was founded upon.
What bigoted trash like you are to stupid to grasp is, that you are picking a fight with the people that own 90% of all the guns, and 98% of all the ammo in this country. People willing to die to defend our freedoms if need be, just how stupid does that sound to you? Pretty damned stupid if you ask me.
Where were you when GW during the 2004 Campaign suggested an ID card “something like a Drivers License” for workers to legally enter our country to work, and the Liberals went Ballistic at such an outrageous suggestion? Now we are seeing why, GW only suggested them for workers who wished to enter the country, where the Liberal Nazis want them issued to keep track of all who might oppose them.
Get a clue Freddie, they just passed an unconstitutional law requiring all Americans to buy health insurance, that alone can be used to expose illegals. The only thing a National ID will accomplish is keeping track of us. Then guess what Feddie, the Liberals will not stay in power very long, and then all of us evil people who refuse to bow to them will gain control over those two things. Then we can keep track of imbecilic “cotton picking” morons like yourself. Now it’s starting to sound like a good idea?
Don’t worry Freddie, less you forget we are true Americans, we are the ones who would defend your Constitutional rights to life. liberty and the pursuit of happiness, while denying the government the right to invade your privacy. What does that sound like Freddie Boy?
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This whole national I.D. Card and RFID chips that our government is proposing, is just one step closer to American Fascism and Totalitarianism. The only person that can Actually save this poor country from being a fascist security police state is Mr. Paul, we Absolutly need a Ron Paul Revolution! 2012 will be the first time I can vote for a specific candidate for presidentcy and Ron Paul is my vote if he chooses to run again, and I sincerly Hope that he does, and I will educate everyone I know to vote for Ron Paul, the American Revolutionary Freedom Fighter!
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A national i.d. card with our fingerprints now, you gotta be kidding me,
“we” Americans can already prove our citizenship to future employers
with our birth certificates. Congratulations Senator Graham, Fidel Castro
will be so proud. It makes me sick how far we are falling………….
I got three words everyone, LIBERTY-LIBERTY-LIBERTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Our “national ID cards” are : 1)Birth Certificate 2)Social Security Number 3)Drivers License 4)Pass Ports. I am old enough to have a social security card that reads: NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES at the bottom of it. Oh I guess the powers that be descided some where along the way it was for identification purposes. I am waiting for it to be manditory to have the numbers in chip form be imbedded in all of us. Now we have the 2010 Census coming. They want us to think we are helping our citizens receive federal funds by completely filling it out. Of course they say the information we disclose is only for census purposes and will not be used by any other government or private entity. Think about it. I guess in the mean time I will take “white out” correction fluid and line out the NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES on my social security card. It is not going to matter anyway because by the time I am able to apply for social security payments there will be no money left in the fund. God bless Ron Paul and his work.
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You’re not the only one man! Who have to worry about all of that.
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The National ID Card will have little to no effect into stopping illegal immigrants from coming into this country, because they will still find a way to use phoney ID cards as their own to dupe security with other people’s ID number or fake serial numbers and address!
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I’m not for all out everyone-can-come-in immigration. Nor do I support granting citizenship to those who are here illegally.
But Fred, I would like to know… are you native American?
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I am oppose to illegal immigration! We welcome people to this country to follow the rule of law!
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Which border? Was there an invading army?
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Or you could stop avoiding the debate.
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Desperation bridges, Fled?
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Very few are as passionate as I am about stopping Illegal Immigration, but Ron Paul is absolutely correct about this. I guarantee you, if this National ID card is passed, it will not have any effect on stopping Illegal Immigration, and it will be used by our Government to invade our Privacy and monitor our every action.
The leftist Democrats and Authoritarians, both Democrats and Republicans, would love nothing better than to use this card to track out every movement. My guess is that if passed, with the supposed intent to stop Illegal Immigrants only, it will suddenly be suggested by Democrats and Neo-Conservative Republicans that it should be used in every corner of society; when grocery shopping, when passing over a toll bridge, when using a pay-toilet, Phone Booths, etc.
We need to stop these traitors of Liberty and Freedom at every attempt they make to invade our lives.
NO NATIONAL ID CARD!
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we already have ss#’s what the hell is this about with creating a new ID card?!? Who the hell gets that contract?! What is wrong with our world?! We’re becoming nazi germany in USA. What the?!?
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Fred, who’s your Daddy? Moa, Stalin, Marx??
You keep ranting on Protection as the solution for every national issue. It’s clear you don’t like Libertarian free market thinking. Is it fair to say you are a Free Thinking atheists too?
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Atheism is the domain of neoconnory (Libertarianism).
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I don’t know about you Jeff, but I’m a little pissed off. All of the liberty sites are being attacked by these shills. Well that’s actually a good thing, but I’m pissed because they sent us the dumbest shills in the bunch.
Hey, the site is called RonPaul.com ….. you would think that we could get some shills that could put two thoughts together and provide a debate. But no, we get nitwits without even the command of the English language.
We deserve better.
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lmao
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“I don’t know about you Jeff, but I’m a little pissed off. All of the liberty sites are being attacked by these shills.”
turnabout is fair play
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Like I said, Fled …. that’s a good thing.
Which sites are the liberty lovers attacking, Fled?
Now we get down to your motivation?
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I’m just getting interested in Ron Paul, and come here to find this freak named fred spamming every single comments section. He is a blight on your site, adds nothing of value to any conversation and is the biggest troll I’ve ever seen on the internet. Why do you allow this here?
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Ok i’ll get into the spirit of things.
Man, the government is controlling the weather, maaan. They got this HAARP thing, sounds like HARP when you say it, cause the government is playing you like a musical instrument, maaaan!
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So Freddie likes the National ID Card?
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Fled, you really are sounding desperate.
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I don’t think Fred realizes what he sounds like.
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I don’t think you neocons (libertarians) realize what you sound like.
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Something so simple, and you blew it.
Epic Fail
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A) Ronulans are the enemy of Liberty.
B) It’s common knowledge that Ronulans are ballot stuffers, making a mockery out of the straw poll process, and internet spammers.
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Morning, noon, and night
Fled The Deflectionist is here
To save you from the dreaded Ronulans!!
We must stop the Ronulans!! They can do things that mere mortals cannot achieve!!
Somehow they can take over polls and the internet, and noone can stop it!!!
This could be the end, folks
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Where do you get this stuff?
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