A week from today, all Americans returning to the US from abroad, even if that means the Caribbean, Mexico, or Canada, will have to fork over a passport in order to be readmitted to their home state. The new rules are a bit of a mixed blessing: at $97 per new passport for adults, that little blue booklet does not come cheap – this seems to be a bit of a cash cow for our “security”-expense strapped government. At the same time, only 27% percent of eligible Americans currently have a passport, compared with, say, 71% of UK residents. That may be a factor of how small a country the UK is in comparison to the US, and how easy to leave (those Brits sure do get around), but passports are no longer required for travel within almost of Europe for EU residents. If this is what it takes to make our fellow countrymen just a little more international (something Lonely Planet has been campaigning for for years), then so be it.

– US Passport Home (Department of State)
– “Passport deadline sparks heated debate” (MSNBC)