In 1995, the net interest cost of government debt was $232 billion. Consider the impact of inflation, and the Treasury will be returning less purchasing power to lenders than it received. Today, refi gurus suggest you can benefit anytime you can cut your mortgage interest rate by 75 basis points, or 0.75 percent. Even at today's low inflation rate, borrowed money is basically free when measured by purchasing power returned to the lender. [...] complaining about having no yield on your savings is a bit like complaining that you have no shoes to a gathering of people who have no feet. [...] lower interest rates for governments are what the old Veg-O-Matic was to everyone's kitchen. If the average cost of government debt returned to 2000 levels, interest expense would nearly triple to $643 billion. [...] the prospect is for years, perhaps decades, of rising interest payments crowding out other government spending.