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Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I do not see the distinguished Senator from New York, but I believe pursuant to an earlier agreement, I am to be recognized after Senator Wellstone's remarks. I understand we are operating under a 5-minute constraint.

Mr. President, let me paraphrase, if I can. First of all, let me say to my colleague from Iowa, I, too, appreciate the fact he has raised this issue. I think it is important we have a debate and certainly a debate about monetary policy is not inappropriate at all.

I think we will be making a tragic mistake, I will say this morning, if we do not confirm the nomination of Alan Greenspan and, I will add, Alice Rivlin and Laurence Meyer as well. We all are very familiar with Alice Rivlin, since she's currently Director of the Office of Management and Budget. She was also the first Director of the Congressional Budget Office and is very well known to many Members. I think she will do a wonderful job.

Laurence Meyer, a highly respected economist, I think will do a remarkably fine job as well.

I believe that the President has done an excellent job in selecting these three nominees and he should be commended for presenting the Senate with such laudable choices for service on the Fed Board .

I will not disguise, Mr. President, the fact that I was a strong advocate of Felix Rohatyn to be Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board . That nomination , unfortunately, did not get much of a hearing in the Senate, despite the President's support for him. I thought Felix's addition to the Board would have created a wonderful debate--the kind of debate, in fact, we are having to some degree this morning--within the Federal Reserve Board about growth.

The absence of Felix Rohatyn does not make that debate impossible, but I felt his addition to the Board would have been healthy for the country to have a good discussion about how you achieve a higher growth rate without also fanning the flames of inflation.

Obviously, that did not occur. I have great respect for Felix Rohatyn, and I believe he can still make a significant contribution. I urge my colleagues to follow his writings on growth and how we might achieve it. I point out, as he has said, and this is something with which I totally agree, that while monetary policy obviously has a lot to do with growth, tax policy also is a major element of our growth rates. Investing in the infrastructure of this country has a great deal to do with whether we achieve growth. And, clearly, education and training has a lot to do with whether or not we can grow properly. There is not just one issue. Monetary policy is important, but there are other major elements that contribute to our ability to grow.

Let me just say, Mr. President, to those who are focusing on the interest rate debate, and I certainly have been as critical as others when the interest rates have gone up. I did not think in several instances it was warranted over the last several years. But it is undeniable as well that we have created more than 10 million new jobs over the last number of years in this country, an unprecedented growth rate in employment. We are witnessing the lowest misery index rate in 28 years. That is a combination of inflation and unemployment.

I remember very well what it was like back in the late seventies--you want to talk about a tax; inflation is a tremendous tax on people--when it was 20 percent inflation rates. You talk about jobs and middle-income people and homes, when you have staggering inflation rates, it is crippling to people.

I am a strong advocate that we can grow more than 2 or 2.5 percent. Frankly, if we just grow two-tenths of a percentage point more, we would just about wipe out the deficit--two-tenths of a percentage point and we would just about wipe out the deficit.

But I am also very conscious of the fact that it is relatively easy for me as a Member of Congress to be able to advocate that, but also understanding when I advocate certain monetary policies, there can be inflationary implications to it. So I have to be very aware of that as I make those decisions, if I am sitting on the Federal Reserve Board .

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