Oregon’s new demand for Social Security numbers fits in with government’s general tendency to create problems for citizens where none existed before.

Since July 1 the Oregon DMV has required people to bring proof of having a number in order to get or renew a driver’s license. The underlying rationale is to keep unauthorized aliens, including potential terrorists, from obtaining Oregon IDs. It never seemed to occur to our leaders that if someone wanted to plan and executive a terrorist attack that required an Oregon ID, they would get some master forger on the other side of the world to produce one that could not be detected.

In Oregon, the legislature and the governor wanted license holders to have valid Social Security numbers, and now the DMV wants you to provide proof. But if you got your number card 40 years ago and the thing, made of thin paperboard, has long since disintegrated, you have to jump through all kinds of hoops.

The DMV says a copy is not acceptable. It has to be an original document. Which makes no sense, considering that the whole point is for the state agency to check the number with the Social Security Administration. To check it, all they would have to do is to ask you to recite it to them. No documents would be needed at all.

Oregon also could have exempted people from the requirement if they have had Oregon licenses for a long time, such as, say, 30 years or more. Somebody who has had the same license, name and identity for that long — how much of a security risk does the state think that person represents?

Oregon is not alone among states in creating red tape with which to annoy the taxpayers and citizens. But that does not make this new emphasis on demanding “papers” any easier to bear.

This is one instance in which Oregon and the United States have come to resemble other countries in the world, where personal freedom is unknown and citizens are mere playthings in the hands of their rulers.

Oregon has not had a rebellion since the tax revolt of 1990, when Measure 5 was passed. If that spirit were still alive, people would tell the state to stuff its new driver’s license rules. But instead, we meekly comply. (hh)