Chris Dodd: “if I may further add, that is just the exact point I wanted to raise with my colleague from North Dakota. We talk about…”

“if I may further add, that is just the exact point I wanted to raise with my colleague from North Dakota. We talk about rising interest rates, and we are talking about some tax cuts. As I understand it, when we begin to talk about an interest rate hike, which we invariably are going to see, the actual cost of a college loan, a home mortgage, a car payment, or any other obligation which most middle-income families have to borrow to meet these obligations-- we have watched higher education costs go up more than 30 percent; we have watched health care premiums go up 45 percent; we have watched the price of gasoline go up 20 percent; all under this President's watch. To make those payments, it will actually exceed whatever tax cut we may be providing to that middle-income family because of our inability or the unwillingness of this administration to actually be more responsible in managing the fiscal picture of this country, and average consumers are going to see interest rate hikes that are going to dwarf any tax cut they may get; isn't that correct?”