Alice Rivlin

From Grokipedia

Alice Mitchell Rivlin (March 4, 1931 – May 14, 2019) was an American economist and public official recognized for her roles in federal budgeting and monetary policy. She served as the founding director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) from 1975 to 1983, establishing an independent agency to provide Congress with objective analyses of legislative proposals' budgetary impacts, thereby strengthening legislative oversight of federal spending and revenues independent of the executive branch. From 1994 to 1996, Rivlin directed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under President Bill Clinton, contributing to deficit reduction strategies that combined expenditure controls with revenue measures amid post-recession recovery. She then acted as vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board from 1996 to 1999, influencing monetary policy during an era of low inflation and sustained growth under Chair Alan Greenspan. Rivlin's career emphasized empirical fiscal analysis and institutional reforms to promote budgetary discipline, including later service on the District of Columbia Financial Control Board from 1998 to 2001 to address the city's fiscal insolvency.

In brief

Alice Rivlin believed a legislature deserves honest numbers. She created the Congressional Budget Office and ran it so both parties could argue from the same tables, then took the same habit to the Office of Management and Budget.

The Fed vice chairmanship was a third tour. Brookings and Georgetown got her in the years between, a budget saint who treated fiscal policy as a civic craft rather than a team sport.