The Buffalo News is reporting that summer travel is forcing the federal government to put its new passport policy on hiatus.
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration today suspended a controversial new policy that would have required passports for Americans who travel by air to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda. The policy has overwhelmed the State Department with passport applications and in some cases disrupted summer travel plans.
Under the change, travelers could show a receipt for a passport application along with a driver’s license as identification on such flights. The suspension is expected to last through the end of September.
Don't put the plan on hold (or, better yet, cancel it) because it's a wasteful, costly, and immoral restriction on freedom of travel. Nah, just put it on hold because the State Department can't process applications fast enough to keep up with demand now that the feds have forced everyone to buy a passport if they want to leave the country.
For a measure that ostensibly makes us safer in the sky, I'm struggling to understand its relevance if we're simply going to delay it when Homeland Security bureaucrats become overwhelmed -- at the busiest travel time of the year, no less, when one would think the threat of terrorism would be at its peak.
But have no fear, good citizens! Travel complications are only going to get worse before they get better, especially if we're all forced to purchase a RealID, which will, at minimum, force us to prove our identities to agents of the State while we drive cars we own down the roads we pay for.
It's high time to stop giving the federal government even more leverage to trample our civil liberties while believing false promises of safety that accompany these measures that merely allow the State to track all of us.
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