Good for the goose

The Senate recently cast a late-night voice vote to privatize its money-losing food service operation.

This is clearly the wrong approach. Instead, they should nationalize the Senate restaurants and require every member and their staff to patronize these fine government-run facilities for every meal.

The operation has lost $18 million in the last 15 years while serving its relatively-wealthy clientèle, and immediately needs $250,000 in taxpayer cash just to make next month’s payroll, because the Senate failed to mandate participation.

Meanwhile, across Capitol Hill, the House food service operation pays the government $1.2 million annually from the profits of its popular restaurants. It was privatized in the 1980s.

We should not draw the conclusion that private enterprise works better than government, rather we need to boost taxes on the obscene windfall profits of the House restaurants to subsidize the Senate operation.