An investigator from the Government Accountability Office successfully secured a U.S. Passport using the Social Security number of a man who died in 1965. This happened a month after the State Department claimed to have implemented controls designed to stop precisely this kind of fraud.
GAO criticism of the passport fraud risk is not new. In 2005, the GAO reported that using stolen identities and documentation is the primary way for a criminal to get a U.S. passport. ... The State Department agreed with the GAO's recommendations and indicated some were implemented or in the process of implementation, such as using commercial databases for verifying identities. Nevertheless, the GAO questions the State Department's commitment to implementing its corrective actions.
Incompetence is one thing when the government is engaged in irrelevancies like the naming of sausages. Or when it attempts to regulate deadly toys from China and instead outlaws classic children's books printed before 1985. Intrusive and overbearing, yes, deadly, no.
But when our government is incompetent in one of its core responsibilities--keeping our people safe and secure from those who want to use deadly force on American soil--people die.
Government is doing too much when it's NOT doing what it HAS to do well.
