Redalgo, nothing is free. Free violates the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and possibly a few other theories as well. You cannot have a government unless citizens are willing (or forced) to underwrite it.
I agree, and assumed other posters would consider that as being implied in my post. I don't think citizens should have to buy their privilege to vote, and rather than taking on the leftist stance of concluding the state should allocate taxpayers' dollars to awarding every citizen a photo ID I compromised in advance for practicality's sake by settling upon a relatively middle-of-the-road, liberal position that those who can reasonably afford to purchase the IDs ought to on their own while the state provides targeted assistance to those who cannot.
But I'd agree that if we're going to have identification, then it ought to be something issued, and paid for by the general revenue. That shouldn't be part of this debate. Collect whatever revenue is necessary, by the usual means, and use it to provide such identification cards. No individual should be required to cough up some amount of cash, however small, for the privilege of voting, because it is a right and not a privilege. That I think is something we should agree upon at the outset.
Ya, exactly. *nods*
All the posts here are interesting to read by the way - I just don't have much to post about now that I haven't got anything controversial to laud, comment on, or criticize. xP
