Crush Liberalism

Liberalism: Why think when you can “feel”?

Senate gets lesson in privatization

The government can run a friggin’ restaurant, and the left wants us to turn over our health care to them?  Kiss my derriere!  From the Washington comPost:

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, a decision that would, for the first time, put it under the control of a contractor and all but guarantee lower wages and benefits for the outfit’s new hires. …

Got that? Partial privatization of retirement is bad, but total privatization of a restaurant is a good idea. Idiots.

And now, for the blasphemy:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairman of the Rules and Administrations Committee, which oversees the operation of the Senate, said she had no choice.

“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.”

But something like this could never happen to health care, could it?

In a masterful bit of understatement, Feinstein blamed “noticeably subpar” food and service. Foot traffic bears that out. Come lunchtime, many Senate staffers trudge across the Capitol and down into the basement cafeteria on the House side. On Wednesdays, the lines can be 30 or 40 people long.

House staffers almost never cross the Capitol to eat in the Senate cafeterias.

The joys of socialism, eh?

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June 9, 2008 - Posted by | Uncategorized

13 Comments »

  1. yeah, the only problem with your line of thinking is that when we leave medicine privatized, people DIE. but by god lets let them die so you can have lower taxes. and i’m sure you’ll make some argument about people being accountable for their own actions, but do you really think a person who didn’t think they needed health insurance deserves to die for such a common mistake? let alone the people who simply can’t afford it.

    Comment by andrew | June 10, 2008

  2. Andrew has a point: health insurance premiums are ridiculous these days. Although I really don’t think gov’t ran healthcare is the way to go, as most gov’t ran programs tend to start well, but end horribly (Medicare, SS, welfare).

    Comment by Ed B. | June 10, 2008

  3. Andrew, from my vantage point, the intent of the post is clear: when you let government get into the business of running things it has no business running, government screws things up.

    Crush is right: if the government cannot run a restaurant, there is no reason to think it can effectively run the 1/7 of our economy known as health care. Your hyperbole about people dying at the hands of privatized medicine is as sophomoric as it is incorrect. Crush has shown here on multiple occasions where countries that have socialized medicine have seen its denizens come here for medical care because the waiting lists in their home countries were too long, to the point where they would die if they waited for their socialized medicine to work for them.

    If someone doesn’t think they need health insurance, they should not be forced to have health insurance. I am appalled, yet not amazed, that you would have government force the healthy to carry health insurance. That’s rather Big Brother of you. Though it repulses you, individual accountability still means something in this country. “Pro-choice” sure has a funny meaning to the left these days.

    No one in our country dies because they don’t have health insurance. As a matter of fact, I am not aware of any death certificate that ever listed the cause of death as “lack of health insurance.” Might I request that you stop being such an emotional pansy ass bitch and try using that melon on your shoulders, if you are capable?

    The evidence is irrefutable, son. You may ignore it if you like, but you cannot refute it.

    By the way, Crush, it’s good to be back.

    Comment by chromedome | June 10, 2008

  4. Chrome! To whom do I owe the pleasure of this return visit? :)

    Comment by crushliberalism | June 10, 2008

  5. Andrew
    I am sure that you are aware of the Canadian policy of NOT TREATING those over 60 for anything more serious than a hangnail. People DIE BECAUSE of govt run healthcare.

    Comment by WMD_Maker | June 10, 2008

  6. Well said chromedome! And welcome back!

    Comment by Kanaka Girl | June 10, 2008

  7. if you get sick and go to the emergency room without health insurance, the doctors are obligated to treat you until you are stabilized, then they discharge you because you can’t afford more treatment. if you are in a stable, but tenuous medical situation, you get discharged, then you go home and die. that is if you aren’t old enough to be on medicade. you can’t put “lack of health insurance” on a death certificate but any idiot who pays attention even a little can see that peoples lives could be saved, not by having government take over the health industry, but just by paying for insurance just for the people who can’t afford it, making it cheaper for the people who can barely afford it, and mandating it to the idiots who say they don’t need it.

    just because you’re posting on a site that buys into the same thinking as you doesn’t make your evidence irrefutable. it just means you all can use bandwagon logic to assume that because I’m the only dissenter here, I must be wrong.

    Comment by andrew | June 10, 2008

  8. You are wrong, Andrew. We are all very used to it. I am sure that nobody here would contend that our system as it is today is perfect or even good. What is being contended is that allowing the government to take it over would make things worse, not better. This notion is based on fact: the government track record is flawless on all business it attempt to run. They fail 100% of the time.

    Comment by TheBad | June 10, 2008

  9. that is if you aren’t old enough to be on medicade

    Andrew, you’re so clueless. Medicaid is available to the poor. MEDICARE is for seniors.

    peoples lives could be saved, not by having government take over the health industry, but just by paying for insurance just for the people who can’t afford it

    Andrew, don’t forget “the government” is the taxpayers. What makes you think it’s everyone else’s responsibility to pay for your medical care? Two words…. PERSONAL…RESPONSIBILITY. Learn it.

    Comment by Kanaka Girl | June 10, 2008

  10. I think the Senate should be served the same menu the kids get in the schools. Oh Yum, Soy burgers, peas and carrots, and a lowfat milk carton for all! I think typical cost is $2 a day. Talk about a savings to the taxpayer, and solid nutrition to boot!

    Comment by Jenn | June 11, 2008

  11. Jenn – well said! Not to mention that it wouldn’t hurt a few of them to shed a pound or 2.

    Comment by Kanaka Girl | June 11, 2008

  12. [...] year, the Senate decided to privatize its own government-run restaurant.  After decades of subpar food and annual losses (despite having merely hundreds of customers), [...]

    Pingback by The federal government’s 100% failure rate « Crush Liberalism | September 8, 2009

  13. [...] paperwork demanded by a government that is not yet paying them what was promised. Last year, the Senate decided to privatize its own government-run restaurant. After decades of subpar food and annual losses (despite having merely hundreds of customers), the [...]

    Pingback by I want to know more about the Healthcare Reform: Are you Pro or Con? - Page 3 - PersonalityCafe | March 23, 2010


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