What Happens When Government Runs A Business

SENATE RESTAURANTS FORCED TO PRIVATIZE AFTER RACKING UP RECORD DEFICITS

FITSNews – June 9, 2008 – So what happens when government has exclusive control over something … anything? Well, since we’ve repeatedly used South Carolina’s abysmally shitty public schools for this analogy, we figured today’s news out of Washington, D.C. was worth bringing to your attention. As it turns out, government can’t even run its own restaurant service without going millions of dollars into the red and requiring an expensive taxpayer bailout …

From the Washington Post:

Year after year, decade upon decade, the U.S. Senate’s network of restaurants has lost staggering amounts of money — more than $18 million since 1993, according to one report, and an estimated $2 million this year alone, according to another.

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.

The embarrassment of the Senate food service struggling like some neighborhood pizza joint has quietly sparked change previously unthinkable for Democrats. Last week, in a late-night voice vote, the Senate agreed to privatize the operation of its food service …

Since we’re for privatizing pretty much everything government does (well, except roads – and the responsibility for nuking whatever Arab nation is making our gas so damn expensive), this is obviously a victory. The only question is why our elected officials don’t apply this kind of thinking to more failed government monopolies?

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