WASHINGTON — If you want to see what economic recovery looks like in this day and age, take a ride down Pennsylvania Avenue. 

To witness a construction boom that’ll make you nostalgic for Dallas in the 1980s, hop a tour bus in our nation’s capital. Notice the number of times the bus passes chain-link construction fences.

And note the signs behind those fences announcing which taxpayer-funded economic recovery program is picking up the tab. 

To experience a hustling, bustling metro area with the lowest unemployment rate of any major city in the nation, come to D.C. But don’t forget your wallet. 

It’s lunch hour and I’m sitting in The Capital Grille trying to work my way around an $18 cheeseburger. The reason I’m eating an $18 cheeseburger in a fancy café is that a $9 price tag for a street-cart hot dog is highway robbery in my book.

As a rule, I’d rather be overcharged in a restaurant than on a sidewalk. 

The tables are all packed, so I’m eating at the bar while watching lobbyists eat and drink their lunches. And I’ve been pondering how Washington is, as we say in Texas, cutting a fat hog these days. 

Less than a week ago, it looked like the fat hog was about to bleed out. With a budget crisis looming, the federal government was headed toward a shutdown. Only a last-minute temporary agreement prevented that from happening.

A few months from now, we’ll watch the next act unfold. 

Today you’d never know that Washington came within a heartbeat of turning from boomtown to ghost town. The lawmakers, bureaucrats, lobbyists and tourists go about their business, scurrying from one vote, one appointment or one point of interest to the next. 

And so the boom goes on, despite the fact that they don’t grow, mine or manufacture much of anything around here — other than legislation and regulation. And even those who do that are having a rough time of it these days. 

Washington can be tough on the sensibilities for somebody who loves his country and its history, but has trouble getting his mind around an $18 cheeseburger. It’s the heart of our republic, so we love it for that.

The monuments are magnificent and when the cherry blossoms are blooming, it’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world. But it’s also one of the most cynical. 

D.C. is a dichotomy. It’s a place of the haves and have-nots — a city where the most powerful people in the world live within shouting distance of grinding crime and poverty. A place of winners and losers, of the ins and the outs.

A place that sells T-shirts gushing about a Republican president one day and a Democrat the next, with nary a blush in between. 

It’s a place where influence is everything, but also the place where our nation pays loving tribute to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for liberty. 

I had some free time this morning, so I started the day watching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. It was a moving experience, made more so by the cold, damp drizzle that fell on the hushed crowd and the soldiers. 

On the highly tax- subsidized subway ride back to town, it occurred to me that Washington is simultaneously obnoxious and endearing. It’s loud and messy and inefficient and expensive, but it’s also one of the most inspiring cities on the planet. 

Washington is a town that tries to have it all. A town that pushes the envelope, lives beyond its means and tries to be everything to everybody. It represents — for better and for worse — the qualities of the people who gave it birth.

It’s both beauty and beast, and it will remain so — at least until the people who pay the bills can’t pay the minimum on our country’s credit card any longer. After that, God help us all. 

Now it’s time to go to the Capitol for a meeting, then head home to Texas, where I’ll turn in my expense account and hope The Boss doesn’t fuss too much about my $18 cheeseburger.

 The burger was tasty, in case you were wondering. But it was way more than I could eat.  And I don’t think it was worth $18, either.

Donnis Baggett is publisher of the Waco Tribune-Herald . Email him at dbaggett@wacotrib.com.