From The Inside Out

Bobo wants to see how the government works from the inside. And so Bobo spends a day observing the activities of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Bobo talks to the people who work there. Bobo is impressed!

Over all, visiting HUD was tremendously useful. Amid the hot-rhetoric government wars, it was important to see the talent and commitment of real-life government workers running a successful program — and to see the limitations inherent in government planning.

Hooray!

And I'll say, Good on Bobo for choosing a federal department that is loathed by conservatives (urban housing, black people), perhaps loathed only slightly less than the Department of Education (public schools, black people).

But I can't help but think that if Bobo truly wanted to see how the federal government works on a day-to-day basis he would have visited the Department of Commerce (big corporations, rich people) or the Department of Energy (big corporations, rich people); these are, it goes without saying, the real clients (bosses?) of the federal government.

Perhaps Bobo is saving that for a future column. Perhaps.

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