Congress is spending money like an opium drug addict uses opium!!!!! Indeed members are addicted to spending OPM (Other People's Money) - specifically the hard earned money of working, retired and even deceased Americans.

If any of us took money earned by one person and gave it to another person, we would most likely be looking forward to time in prison.

The ramifications of our government's reckless spending are disastrous for all Americans.

Less Income and Higher Inflation:

Our buying power is reduced, either from the loss of net income from higher taxes or the reduction in the value of the dollar from printing more dollars.

Products and services cost more! Government spending produces inflation.

Healthcare - With 45.1% of healthcare dollars coming from government (2005), the healthcare inflation rate was 91% higher than the general inflation rate from 1991 to 2005.

K-12 Education - With 91% of K-12 education dollars coming from government (2005). K-12 education inflation rate was 142% higher than the general inflation rate from 1991 to 2005.

College Education - Government dollars account for a large portion of college and university budgets, where the higher education inflation rate far out paces the general inflation rate.

Housing Market - Government policy made housing money easily available. Housing prices rose above market rates absorbing the easy money until finally the propped up housing market bubble burst.

Cash for Clunkers - Government policy made new car money easily available while crushing the trade-in car. Auto companies reduced or eliminated their rebate incentives, many Americans went deeper into debt to finance the new car, the removal of older cars by crushing them greatly hurt many smaller auto-mechanic shops, and those who bopught a new car under Cash for Clunker program later discovered that, unlike a dealer or auto-manufacturer's incentive, they goverment incentive had to be treated as extra taxable income. The net result for many if not most Cash for Clunker consumers was worse than if they had traded without the cash for clunkers incentive.

State bailouts - State legislators rush to spend federal money as though it does not have any cost to those they are elected to represent. But so-called federal money is raised by taxes, it is then administered by federal bureaucracies at substantial expense, and whatever is left is given back "as an act of generosity" to some of the taxpayers from whom it was taken.

Both opponents and supporters of the 2009 trillion dollar spending "stimulus" bill expressed concerns about the inflationary increase such spending would create. Unlike government, consumers will only pay what something is worth to them. When government money enters the equation, the extra money increases the demand, which pushes the costs up, resulting in higher inflation.

Inflation hurts your family. You work the same hours, but your paycheck is worth less!

Government intrusion into the marketplace by distributing money to consumers or by regulating and overseeing how consumers use their money should be a last resort because it either results in additional inflation or drives products or services out of the open market. By contrast, policies that build a competitive and open market, where consumer purchasing decisions guide product quality, features and pricing, always delivers the best consumer value.

Less Compassion:

Government funded programs are often presented as delivering compassion. Indeed many Americans support government funded programs in the name of Christianity. However, that is misguided compassion for two reasons. First it is clear that more often than not government funded programs of compassion are more enabling, entrapping or even enslaving and than they are empowering. Furthermore, government programs and staff tend to become more important than the reason such programs were created. Programs are often justified to prevent jobs losses within the programs, rather than because the programs are effective.

Second, and no less important, is the means by which "compassion" is extended. As stated in the second paragraph above, if someone takes someone's money that was not freely given, that is called stealing. The same is true if a group of people take money from someone. Grouping together under the title of government does not grant people in that group a lower ethical or moral standard than the rest of us. Rather those elected to guide our nation should strive to be examples of ethical living.

Stealing via a government act may be "legal" because politicians have set themselves up as moral agents and passed law after law allowing the government to do what you and I cannot do - taking a person's earnings or property without that person's permission. When morality is reduced to laws made by man there is no argument against the actions of Hitler or Stalin. Stealing is stealing regardless of who is doing it, and Christians engaging in such actions (either directly or by their vote) are tossing aside much of the book they claim as their guide for living. "You Shall Not Steal" (Exodus 20:15). The same is true for people who claim to adhere to any other belief system that opposes stealing.

Ephesians 4:28 in the New Testament also teaches not to steal, while also encouraging helping the needy: "Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need."

Certainly a person can steal through another person. A vote for a person who steals (taking without permission) is stealing. Instead the above scripture verse instructs the Christian to work and earn his or her own money so he or she is able to personally and freely give to those in need.

Moreover, trying to accomplish a good result through unethical means never yields the desired good. Over and over studies show programs that are supported by people's free choice are more effective and freeing than programs which are funded via taxation, or forced support. Our own experience also confirms this.

In addition to being ethical, it only makes sense that government should tax as little as possible, so Americans can freely give to programs we believe are effective. No American should be forced to support programs they feel are ineffective or counter-productive. Americans have always been a generous people and it is time those we elect shed their arrogance and instead demonstrate trust in the wisdom of the American people.

More Corruption:

It is very dangerous and unwise to give any person or group of persons free access to seemingly unlimited money or power. No man, woman or group of men and / or women should be trusted with such power. If they were not corrupt at the outset, they are sure to be before the passage of much time.

We have seen this play out over and over in America and throughout history. Only a limited government can protect those we elect from the corrupting power of money and its influence.

Christian teaching warns against the very real disasters that can result when we allow money (or power) to be centralized in a person or entity - "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil ..." Just as it is important that we do not let our lives become centered on the desire for money or power, so to we should not allow our government to acquire vast power or money. No person or group of persons can responsibly handle such power. As history, even recent American history, confirms the more power is concentrated the greater the abuse. This is true in every area of society - government, industry, religion, etc. - and is why monopoly-type power should not be embraced in any arena, most certainly in government, which has the greatest capability to force the participation of the people and thus the greatest potential for abuse and harm.

It should be no surprise that our nation's founders, who embraced the Christian worldview, framed a very limited government. Our founders understood human nature from the Christian perspective and it is no coincidence that a society built on that foundation delivered unparalleled freedom and prosperity. Nor is it a coincidence that as Americans drift away from that foundation both freedom and prosperity in America are under retreat.

"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis, The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment.

American citizens must stop making excuses for Congress or the America or we will be the first generation to leave their children an America with less liberty and less opportunity for prosperity. It is not merely that we need to elect different people, we need a government that does not feed that insatiable desire for power, which has defeated so many people. Congress needs the tough love that a friend would provide to a drug-addicted friend. Only by separating Congress from easy access to "unlimited" power can their addiction be broken ... and our nation be healed.

You can help by displaying the at-cost bumper stickers offered here or make and display your own signs. CONGRESS IS ON OPM is an idea-centered campaign to help focus Americans on the very real danger to a free society when limits on government are ignored. You are welcomed and encouraged to promote the ideas presented at this website in any way you can. Together we can help more and more Americans see Congress’ out-of-control spending spree and regulation extravaganza for what they are -- a power addiction, to be paid for by the American people, today and for generations to come.