Not linked on Ron Paul’s Congressional Website.
HON. RON PAUL
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
2009 Ron Paul 4:1
Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, today I introduce
the Identity Theft Prevention Act. This
act protects the American people from government-
government-
mandated uniform identifiers that facilitate
private crime as well as the abuse of liberty.
The major provision of the Identity Theft
Prevention Act halts the practice of using the
Social Security number as an identifier by requiring
the Social Security Administration to
issue all Americans new Social Security numbers
within 5 years after the enactment of the
bill. These new numbers will be the sole legal
property of the recipient, and the Social Security
Administration shall be forbidden to divulge
the numbers for any purposes not related to
Social Security Administration. Social Security
numbers issued before implementation of this
bill shall no longer be considered valid federal
identifiers. Of course, the Social Security Administration
shall be able to use an individual’s
original Social Security number to ensure efficient
administration of the Social Security system.
2009 Ron Paul 4:2
Madam Speaker, Congress has a moral responsibility
to address this problem because it
was Congress that transformed the Social Security
number into a national identifier. Thanks
to Congress, today no American can get a job,
open a bank account, get a professional license,
or even get a driver’s license without
presenting his Social Security number. So
widespread has the use of the Social Security
number become that a member of my staff
had to produce a Social Security number in
order to get a fishing license!
2009 Ron Paul 4:3
One of the most disturbing abuses of the
Social Security number is the congressionally-
authorized rule forcing parents to get a Social
Security number for their newborn children in
order to claim the children as dependents.
Forcing parents to register their children with
the state is more like something out of the
nightmares of George Orwell than the dreams
of a free republic that inspired this Nation’s
founders.
2009 Ron Paul 4:4
Congressionally-mandated use of the Social
Security number as an identifier facilitates the
horrendous crime of identity theft. Thanks to
Congress, an unscrupulous person may simply
obtain someone’s Social Security number
in order to access that person’s bank accounts,
credit cards, and other financial assets.
Many Americans have lost their life savings
and had their credit destroyed as a result
of identity theft. Yet the federal government
continues to encourage such crimes by mandating
use of the Social Security number as a
uniform ID!
2009 Ron Paul 4:5
This act also forbids the federal government
from creating national ID cards or establishing
any identifiers for the purpose of investigating,
monitoring, overseeing, or regulating private
transactions among American citizens. In
2005, this body established a de facto national
ID card with a provisions buried in the “intelligence”
reform bill mandating federal standards
for drivers’ licenses, and mandating that
federal agents only accept a license that conforms
to these standards as a valid ID.
2009 Ron Paul 4:6
Nationalizing standards for drivers’ licenses
and birth certificates creates a national ID system
pure and simple. Proponents of this
scheme claim they are merely creating new
standards for existing State IDs. However, imposing
federal standards in a federal bill creates
a federalized ID regardless of whether
the ID itself is still stamped with the name of
your State.
2009 Ron Paul 4:7
The national ID will be used to track the
movements of American citizens, not just terrorists.
Subjecting every citizen to surveillance
diverts resources away from tracking and apprehending
terrorists in favor of needless
snooping on innocent Americans. This is what
happened with “suspicious activity reports” required
by the Bank Secrecy Act. Thanks to
BSA mandates, federal officials are forced to
waste countless hours snooping through the
private financial transactions of innocent
Americans merely because those transactions
exceeded $10,000.
2009 Ron Paul 4:8
Turning State-issued drivers licenses into
federally controlled national ID cards is yet another
federal usurpation of State authority and
another costly unfunded mandate imposed on
the States. According to a report issued by the
National Conference of State Legislators, turning
drivers licenses into national ID cards will
cost the States more than $11 billion.
2009 Ron Paul 4:9
Madam Speaker, no wonder there is a
groundswell of opposition to this mandate.
Several State legislatures have even passed
laws forbidding their States from complying
with this mandate! The Identity Theft Prevention
Act not only repeals those sections of the
federal law creating a national ID, it forbids the
federal government from using federal funds
to blackmail States into adopting uniform federal
identifiers. Passing the Identity Theft Prevention
Act is thus an excellent way for this
Congress to show renewed commitment to
federalism and opposition to imposing unfunded
mandates on the States.
2009 Ron Paul 4:10
This legislation not only repeals those sections
of federal law creating the national ID, it
also repeals those sections of the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act of
1996 that require the Department of Health
and Human Services to establish a uniform
standard health identifier – an identifier which
could be used to create a national database
containing the medical history of all Americans.
As an OB/GYN with more than 30 years
in private practice, I know the importance of
preserving the sanctity of the physician-patient
relationship. Oftentimes, effective treatment
depends on a patient’s ability to place absolute
trust in his or her doctor. What will happen
to that trust when patients know that any
and all information given to their doctors will
be placed in a government accessible database?
2009 Ron Paul 4:11
By putting an end to government-mandated
uniform IDs, the Identity Theft Prevention Act
will prevent millions of Americans from having
their liberty, property, and privacy violated by
private and public sector criminals.
2009 Ron Paul 4:12
Some members of Congress will claim that
the federal government needs the power to
monitor Americans in order to allow the government
to operate more efficiently. I would
remind my colleagues that, in a constitutional
republic, the people are never asked to sacrifice
their liberties to make the jobs of government
officials easier. We are here to protect
the freedom of the American people, not to
make privacy invasion more efficient.
2009 Ron Paul 4:13
Madam Speaker, while I do not question the
sincerity of those members who suggest that
Congress can ensure that citizens’ rights are
protected through legislation restricting access
to personal information, the only effective privacy
protection is to forbid the federal government
from mandating national identifiers. Legislative
“privacy protections” are inadequate to
protect the liberty of Americans for a couple of
reasons.
2009 Ron Paul 4:14
First, it is simply common sense that repealing
those federal laws that promote identity
theft is more effective in protecting the public
than expanding the power of the federal police
force. Federal punishment of identity thieves
provides cold comfort to those who have suffered
financial losses and the destruction of
their good reputations as a result of identity
theft.
2009 Ron Paul 4:15
Federal laws are not only ineffective in stopping,
private criminals, but these laws have
not even stopped unscrupulous government
officials from accessing personal information.
After all, laws purporting to restrict the use of
personal information did not stop the well-publicized
violations of privacy by IRS officials or
the FBI abuses of the Clinton and Nixon administrations.
2009 Ron Paul 4:16
In one of the most infamous cases of identity
theft, thousands of active-duty soldiers and
veterans had their personal information stolen,
putting them at risk of identity theft. Imagine
the dangers if thieves are able to obtain the
universal identifier, and other personal information,
of millions of Americans simply by
breaking, or hacking, into one government facility
or one government database?
2009 Ron Paul 4:17
Second, the federal government has been
creating proprietary interests in private information
for certain state-favored special interests.
Perhaps the most outrageous example of
phony privacy protection is the “medical privacy”’
regulation, that allows medical researchers,
certain business interests, and law
enforcement officials access to health care information,
in complete disregard of the Fifth
Amendment and the wishes of individual patients!
Obviously, “privacy protection” laws
have proven greatly inadequate to protect personal
information when the government is the
one seeking the information.
2009 Ron Paul 4:18
Any action short of repealing laws authorizing
privacy violations is insufficient primarily
because the federal government lacks constitutional
authority to force citizens to adopt a
universal identifier for health care, employment,
or any other reason. Any federal action
that oversteps constitutional limitations violates
liberty because it ratifies the principle that the
federal government, not the Constitution, is
the ultimate judge of its own jurisdiction over
the people. The only effective protection of the
rights of citizens is for Congress to follow
Thomas Jefferson’s advice and “bind (the federal
government) down with the chains of the
Constitution.”
2009 Ron Paul 4:19
Madam Speaker, those members who are
not persuaded by the moral and constitutional
reasons for embracing the Identity Theft Prevention
Act should consider the American people’s
opposition to national identifiers. The numerous
complaints over the ever-growing uses
of the Social Security number show that Americans
want Congress to stop invading their privacy.
Furthermore, according to a survey by
the Gallup company, 91 percent of the American
people oppose forcing Americans to obtain
a universal health ID.
2009 Ron Paul 4:20
In conclusion, Madam Speaker, I once
again call on my colleagues to join me in putting
an end to the federal government’s unconstitutional
use of national identifiers to
monitor the actions of private citizens. National
identifiers threaten all Americans by exposing
them to the threat of identity theft by private
criminals and abuse of their liberties by public
criminals, while diverting valuable law enforcement
resources away from addressing real
threats to public safety. In addition, national
identifiers are incompatible with a limited, constitutional
government. I, therefore, hope my
colleagues will join my efforts to protect the
freedom of their constituents by supporting the
Identity Theft Prevention Act.
