McCain and Schumer Move to Force Americans to Use Biometric ID for Employment

Biometric Reader (Photo credit: ★ SimonPix)

Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said on Thursday they back a plan to force all Americans to use a biometric Social Security card as part of a “comprehensive

“I’m for it,” McCain told a Politico Playbook breakfast earlier this week when asked if he supports “a super Social Security card that would have some sort of biometric thing like a fingerprint.”

“We want to make sure that employers do not hire people who are here illegally,” said Schumer, who has pushed for biometric employment cards in the past, according to Matt Sledge of AOL’s Huffington Post. “The only way to do that is to have a non-forgeable card. Because right now you can go down the street here and get a Social Security card or a driver’s license for $100 that’s forged.”

If Schumer and McCain have their way, American citizens will need to submit to the government fingerprints or other biometric information if they want to be legally employed. In other words, citizens will not only be required to get government permission to work, they will also be obliged to submit biometric data to the surveillance state. Read more >>

Dodd Financial Reform Bill: All Holes and No Cheese

Submitted by George Washington
In a letter to Senate majority leader Harry Reid and minority leader Mitch McConnell, luminaries including former SEC Chief Accountant Lynn Turner, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, hedge fund owner Jim Chanos, former Lehman Brothers Vice Chair Peter Solomon, former S&L investigator Bill Black, former Senate Banking Committee Chief Economist Rob Johnson, economists Dean Baker, Barry Eichengreen and others pointed out that Dodd's proposed financial reform legislation wouldn't have prevented the current crisis ... and won't prevent the next crisis.

Dodd himself has admitted that his bill "will not stop the next crisis from coming".

In fact, the bill is wholly ineffective, failing to address the core things which need to be done to stabilize the economy. See this, this and this.

Moreover - as Simon Johnson points out - the bill intentionally doesn't have much in the way of specifics, but just pushes off on regulators the ability to crack down on Wall Street in the future. As Johnson notes, this is a recipe for continued failure to rein in Wall Street:

If legislation can only empower regulators then, given regulators are only as strong a newly elected president wants them to be, the approach in the Dodd bill simply will not work.

Moreover, as Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman - a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee and a certified public accountant - states:

The Dodd bill has unlimited executive bailout authority. That’s something Wall Street desperately wants but doesn’t dare ask for. The bill contains permanent, unlimited bailout authority.

And as Arthur Delaney notes, the bill is riddled with carve outs purchased by lobbyists:

"Obtaining a carve-out isn't rocket science," said a Republican financial services lobbyist. "Just give Chairman Dodd [D-Conn.] and Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.] a shitload of money."

On MSNBC Tuesday morning, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a Banking Committee member who worked closely with Dodd, said there was "no question" that Dodd's draft contained loopholes. Corker mentioned a few hits from the carve-out list: "Private equity firms are left out," he said. "Hedge funds are left out."

The bill is all holes and no cheese.

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