Isn’t This Rich: Senate votes to privatize its failing restaurant
” The financial condition of the world’s most exclusive dining hall and its affiliated Capitol Hill restaurants, cafeterias and coffee shops has become so dire that, without a $250,000 subsidy from taxpayers, the Senate won’t make payroll next month.”
Dianne Feinstein:
“It’s cratering,” she said of the restaurant system. “Candidly, I don’t think the taxpayers should be subsidizing something that doesn’t need to be. There are parts of government that can be run like a business and should be run like businesses.”
Robert Menendez:
“[Y]ou cannot stand on the Senate floor and condemn the privatization of workers, and then turn around and privatize the workers here in the Senate and leave them out on their own.”
Sherrod Brown:
“I know what happens with privatization. Workers lose jobs, and the next generation of workers make less in wages. These are some of the lowest-paid workers in our country, and I want to help them,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a staunch labor union ally, said recently. The wages of the approximately 100 Senate food service workers average $37,000 annually.
Yes, they average $37,000 annually, but
The Senate Restaurants, as the food service network is known, has a range of offerings, from the ornate Senate Dining Room on the first floor of the Capitol, where senators and their guests are served by staffers wearing jackets and ties, to the huge cafeteria in the Dirksen Building and various coffee shops throughout the Senate complex.
All told, they bring in more than $10 million a year in food sales but have turned a profit in just seven of their 44 years in business, according to the GAO.
June 9, 2008 - 11:07 PM on June 9th, 2008
Of course they haven’t turned a profit, they’re run by the government and efficiency is NOT a hallmark of anything that the government does.
June 10, 2008 - 02:41 AM on June 10th, 2008
Another example of arrogance, elitism, and hypocrisy by the corrupt vermin who call themselves our representatives.
To think taxpayer money is subsidizing their lunches. Aren’t they gorging themselves enough at the public trough enough already, even as they do nothing useful in return? Oh, I forgot: Congress recently investigated steroid use in baseball! Now THERE’s something really important!
June 10, 2008 - 08:26 AM on June 10th, 2008
Last time I checked, goverment entities aren’t judged to turn a profit, but to provide a service where a regular business can’t.
When I was in the Army, much of the catering was out-sourced, clean and well-run. Not sure if they made a profit, but I do know that there was no shortage of contractors ready to do business.
That said, not every government entity, even if it isn’t profit-motivated, should be judged on wheter it makes a profit, doesn’t mean that all book-keeping should be chucked.
NY-David
June 11, 2008 - 10:31 PM on June 11th, 2008
David, the reason why anything for the military is outsourced to outside contractors is because the outside contractor can do it for less than the military can. The only reason why an outside contractor even bids on a contract is with the intent of turning a profit. I was a motor officer and for a few weeks filled in for the supply officer. I saw exactly how the military is set up to act as inefficiently outside of combat as possible. It drove me crazy. The military supply system is set up to encourage waste and fraud. No private business could work that way. As long as the government can wantonly vote for waste and then pass confiscatory tax policies to fund it, there is no incentive to not be wasteful. At least until the people are overtaxed to the point of revolt. Ever hear the phrase “Taxation without representation”? It’s what lead to the American Revolution. Taxation to the point of starvation lead to the French and Russian revolutions. Those didn’t turn out so well for the people in charge. Of course that would get some of these idiotic leftist dinosaurs from the 60s out of the government once and for all… “Off with their heads!”