In 1990 it was only 5% of Americans and now it's 50%. In the UK it's 85% but a better comparison is probably France who are in the Schengen Area so only 60% have a passport.

If I lived in France I doubt I would travel outside of the Schengen Area.

There’s about 180m us passports, so about half the country has one, about the same percentage as France.

As an american it is true that most people don’t have passports - the act of flying internationally is either out of reach economically or culturally. This does give mostly out of touch opression where the margins are the targets and the white dudes will likely get a pass, so the latter.

It's possible this might have a significant (not small, not necessarily large) impact on the smaller subset of delinquent parents that might currently have a larger double digit percentage (30% say) skipping to Canada, Mexico, or elsewhere to avoid being chased down.

Or not.

The main point here is that it's not the entire population of regular US citizens that should be looked at here, more the specific behaviour of the subset in question.

Presumably it would be very effective for some demographics and not so effective for others. 10% is still a very large group of people. People who would be affected are also probably people who can afford international travel, so the affected are probably disporportionally the group who are failing to pay despite having a bunch of spare income.

I don't have much of a problem with the $100K penalties.

I have a lot more issue with a $2.5K limit--that could be just one or two (intentionally or unintentionally) misreported payments. Or a paycheck hiccup. Or a layoff. Or a government error (because we all know how infallible DOGE was). Or a government shutdown. Or ...

We specifically decry the concepts of debtor's prisons and social credit in the US. For good reasons.

This is leaving aside the whole discussion about your passport being an identity document that isn't subject to control of a single US state government like your driver's license.

I accidentally read the comments on the post and got as far as this one:

“Honestly, since we're going towards socialism, we need to abolish child support. Women have the right to get an abortion because it is their body their choice. A man has to use his body …”

That was enough for me.

And in Dubai you can't open your door!

Idk, but it may also be a ploy to disfranchise voters (if a passport is required to vote), as this hits Democrats voter potential harder.

Think the original language is 1996 and Clinton. Or, more properly, I guess, Gingrich. I don't know all the details, saw that somewhere else and can't remember where.