Do you know why the fee to obtain a passport has gone all the way up to $135? Because

Fees paid to the Bureau of Consular Affairs cover the costs of everything from making and issuing passports to helping Americans bring home relatives who died overseas or assisting crime victims. The bureau also is in charge of evacuating U.S. citizen in the event of a natural disaster.

Last year those services totaled an estimated $300 million.

God forbid Congress appropriate that amount for the Department of State in addition to its ordinary budgetary requirements. Nope, make the citizens pay for that stuff through higher fees. I can hear Rick Santelli screeching now: “Why should I pay for Joe and Suzie Blow to come back to America just because they were trapped in some earthquake?” I can only assume that turkey never travels out of the country and thus has no need for a passport.

The cost of producing the passport is estimated at about $16. It’s biometric and has been since 2007. My last one was issued in the summer of 1984 and has long ago expired.