There are lots of reasons not to have a national ID card:

- Knowing who people are won't catch those with no previous criminal record (like the 9.11 terrorists). So that's no help unless we're going to start profiling.
- There are lots of ways to beat the system.
- It would take a lot of money and effort to make it reasonably effective.
- Police who are given powers to demand ID invariably have powers to detain people who do not have the card.

EFF fears that we'll end up with the worst of both worlds: a system that isn't good enough to protect against terrorism, but is good enough to create an internal passport system for ordinary, law-abiding Americans.