Furthermore, just like any other required documentation it will turn into another useless nightmare for citizens. Before going you will need to scrounge up 100 documents and pictures, etc. Then you will need to make an appointment. Then you will have to pay some ludicrous processing fee. Then take a day off work to stand in line for a day and deal with some fat government slob, etc. Then wait an entire month to get the stupid thing (which means you won't be able to travel/get a job/drive/etc while you wait for a stinking month for them to make a laminated card.) And then God knows how many months it will take for those clowns to process a change of address/etc. The PITA of a driver's license and a social security card should be enough to scare the living crap out of anyone with half a brain from wanting a national id card.
What sort of hell do you live in, friend? Here in Massachusetts the process to get a driver's license is painless: bring a few documents you already have and should keep well-filed (a paystub or bank statement, a passport or other state ID, that sort of stuff) to your local Registry of Motor Vehicles office, hit a few buttons on the automated kiosk, wait a few minutes in the chairs the provide and fill out the form if you haven't done so already, go up when they call your number, hand your stuff over, get a temporary ID. You'll get your real one in about week. I did this in November of last year; it took a total of 15 minutes. You can travel and get a job with your pre-existing documents and the temporary ID you get is for driving. What's the problem? If my state can figure out how a deli works, why can't others?
On a paper submitted by a physicist colleague: "This isn't right. This isn't even wrong." -- Wolfgang Pauli