As a small business owner we hire a number of people. In the past few months we've had problems where 2 people we wanted to hire (both US citizens). Simply allowing *expired* US passports would have saved us hours, and let us hire someone a month earlier, but ideally allowing small businesses (or all businesses?) to simply hire anyone with a SSN and a drivers license would be great.
Years ago it was easier, but it's become harder in the past few years.
I don't think anyone in their right mind believes that these extra steps really stop terrorists, but it does cost businesses time and money, and also makes it harder to hire people. Shouldn't we focus on making it easy to hire people?