omb=my life

i was worried that coming to washington would put me in the very midst of the politics that i hate. somehow i managed to end up at one of the few places in the federal government that works to keep politicians in check without ulterior motives. the staff of the omb are career civil servants who have no constituency but the american people. imagine: reviewing regulations to be sure that the benefits (economic, social and environmental) exceed the costs. correcting market failures such as natural monopolies and externalities. informing policymakers of the optimal solution, whether or not it is what they want to hear. i am in economist heaven. no wonder it is the number one federal workplace (I'm not kidding...here is the link to the article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/13/AR2005091301705.html?referrer=emailarticle). for the first time in much too long I feel like I actually have direction. It's not exactly the easiest direction or the one I expected to be going in, but it definitely feels like the right one. Last weekend, we went to a play at the arena stage; "born yesterday" did not attempt to hide government corruption, but the moral was that we can work through and overcome it. I seem to have found my way of contributing.