Matt Collins
06-26-2008, 08:22 PM
U.S. Senate Can't Even Run a Restaurant
The U.S. Senate constantly set rules for the American economy, and tells Americans in excruciating detail precisely how to conduct their economic affairs.
Yet the Senate's all-powerful central planners can't even run... their own restaurant.
For over 40 years the Senate's government-run restaurant and affiliated cafeterias and coffee shops have lost stunning amounts of money: about $2 million this year alone, reports the Washington Post.
Furthermore, the food and the service are lousy -- "noticeably subpar," according to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). It's so bad, in fact, that many Senate staffers prefer to trek over to the tastier House restaurant -- which, not coincidentally, has been run by private contractors since the 1980s.
Now these fed-up senators have decided to... privatize the Senate food service.
In a late-night voice vote -- yes, you can bet some of them were embarrassed -- the Senate voted to contract out its restaurant to the same company that handles the U.S. House food services.
Unlike the money-pit Senate bureaucracy, the private company running the House restaurant makes a nice profit -- while offering better food, more choices, and better service.
The company expects to do the same for the Senate -- earning a profit within three years while paying nearly a million dollars in annual commissions to the Senate.
There you have it: a virtual side-by-side demonstration of the superiority of the market to the government.
Let's hope U.S. senators remember this lesson in the months ahead, as this same Senate -- which has now admitted it can't even successfully operate a restaurant -- debates running America's $2 trillion health care system.
(Source: Washington Post:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/08/AR2008060801765.html)
The U.S. Senate constantly set rules for the American economy, and tells Americans in excruciating detail precisely how to conduct their economic affairs.
Yet the Senate's all-powerful central planners can't even run... their own restaurant.
For over 40 years the Senate's government-run restaurant and affiliated cafeterias and coffee shops have lost stunning amounts of money: about $2 million this year alone, reports the Washington Post.
Furthermore, the food and the service are lousy -- "noticeably subpar," according to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). It's so bad, in fact, that many Senate staffers prefer to trek over to the tastier House restaurant -- which, not coincidentally, has been run by private contractors since the 1980s.
Now these fed-up senators have decided to... privatize the Senate food service.
In a late-night voice vote -- yes, you can bet some of them were embarrassed -- the Senate voted to contract out its restaurant to the same company that handles the U.S. House food services.
Unlike the money-pit Senate bureaucracy, the private company running the House restaurant makes a nice profit -- while offering better food, more choices, and better service.
The company expects to do the same for the Senate -- earning a profit within three years while paying nearly a million dollars in annual commissions to the Senate.
There you have it: a virtual side-by-side demonstration of the superiority of the market to the government.
Let's hope U.S. senators remember this lesson in the months ahead, as this same Senate -- which has now admitted it can't even successfully operate a restaurant -- debates running America's $2 trillion health care system.
(Source: Washington Post:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/08/AR2008060801765.html)