This is longtime Cato Daily podcast host, Caleb Brown.

I've moved on to head the Kentucky's Bluegrass Institute,

but I wanted to leave listeners with some favorite episodes over the last nearly 18 years of my hosting tenure.

I tried to pick episodes that are relevant to our current moment.

Thank you for listening.

This is the Cato Daily podcast for Friday, August 10th, 2007.

I'm Caleb Brown.

States are rejecting real ID.

The federal mandate, some believe, is the birth of the national ID card.

States are primarily complaining about the cost.

Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies for the Cato Institute, says there are plenty of other reasons to oppose

Real ID, Federal databases, due process, and federalization of identification. Many states are

now resisting Real ID. What are their reasons? Well, there are a number of different reasons. I think the real catalyst for the discussion in the states was the cost. Estimates are that about $11 billion in costs would go to state governments for implementation of real ID. That's in addition to an equivalent amount of cost

being imposed on individuals in states for their compliance purposes. The cost really catalyzed

the debate, but obviously the privacy consequences of having a system like this and having

huge databases of personal information in the states. Accessible nationwide is another major

concern of state legislators. Some additional rules for implementation have yet to come down. Is there

any chance that any of the concerns of states will be alleviated in those regulations?

Well, I think the Department of Homeland Security will attempt to alleviate some of those concerns,

though the statute itself is rather strict about what states can and can't do.

So there may be some play in the joints, but I doubt that that play in the joints will be enough to bring states back in.

Many of them have already passed legislation refusing to participate in real ID,

...