'How do you prove that you are you?'

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Audra Schmierer's Social Security number really gets around. It has been used by at least 81 people in 17 states, most of them probably illegal immigrants trying to get work.

The federal government took years to discover the number was being used illegally, but authorities took little action even then.

''They knew what was happening but wouldn't do anything,'' said Schmierer, 33, a housewife in this affluent San Francisco suburb. ''One name, one number, why can't they just match it up?''

Her case is an example of an increasingly common problem:

Just think,FDR and the New Deal crowd promised Social Security would never be used as a national ID.