Bill Delahunt: “I keep hearing from the proponents how the benefits of this bill will flow to the American people. Well, if they believe…”

“I keep hearing from the proponents how the benefits of this bill will flow to the American people. Well, if they believe that, I have a bridge that I want to sell them. At one of our subcommittee hearings on this legislation last year I asked each of the panelists, and there were nine, whether the bill would result in lower interest rates to consumers. Every single one of them admitted probably not. Well, I appreciated their honesty. By the way, there is ample empirical evidence, hard evidence, to suggest that consumers will not benefit at all by this bill. The American people should know that in 1996, a Harvard University study pointed out that between 1980 and 1982 the Federal funds rate fell from 13.4 percent to 3.5 percent, a drop of nearly 10 percentage points. The average credit card interest rates went the other way. It rose from nearly 17.3 percent to 17.9 percent. The bottom line, the credit card industry will be the only beneficiary of this proposal, and to suggest otherwise does not hold water.”