Busting the Budget on Praise; Democratic Club Honors Alice Rivlin
Alice Rivlin, head of the District of Columbia's control board, thought the Woman's National Democratic Club invited her to lunch last week to make a Women's History Month speech.</br></br>To her surprise, she was not only a speaker--but also the topic of speeches by Mayor Anthony Williams; U.S. Treasurer Mary Ellen Withrow; Jack Lew, director of the Office of Management and Budget; and Robert Litan, Brookings Institution vice president. WNDC President Anna Stout introduced them all.</br></br>They had gathered to honor Rivlin with the WNDC's Democratic Woman of the Year Award. The praise was high for her distinguished public service. Besides heading the control board, she has served as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and director of the Office of Management and Budget, and was the founding director of the Congressional Budget Office.</br></br>Williams, speaking mostly off the cuff, said, "Alice and I have a unique relationship. I'm trying to put her out of business at the control board and she's trying to help me. In her previous life, she helped balance the books for our entire country. We haven't always agreed on every detail, but we share a common commitment to completing the financial recovery, moving back toward self- government and helping this city take its place alongside Paris and Rome as a great world capital."</br></br>Mary Ellen Withrow, U.S. treasurer, praised Rivlin's many efforts, but it is her "unspoken" talent as a role model for women-- "especially Democratic women"--that most captured Withrow's attention.