The Great 2007 Passport Fiasco

Ah, yet another thing to blame the Bush administration for: Making millions of Americans virtual prisoners in their own country because of an enormous backlog of passport applications.

With the coming of summer travel season, this is no small matter.

Take the case of a friend who is a world traveler: She mailed in her passport to be renewed in early March. Three-plus months later, no passport. So she called an 800 number to find out what the problem is.

The problem is that the State Department is so short staffed (blame the Iraq war) that it is overwhelmed with passport applications and renewals. The backlog is largely due to a new rule that requires U.S. citizens to have passports when flying to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda.

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