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GLENN: Try this on, from the Washington Post. Year after year, decade upon decade, the U.S. Senate's network of restaurants wait a minute. The U.S. Senate's network of restaurants? They have a network of restaurants? Is this like a chain? Is this like the Senate's Chili's? The network of restaurants has lost a staggering amount of money. Since 1993 the U.S. Senate's network of restaurants has lost more than $18 million, and an estimated $2 million this year alone. We're only six months into the year. They've lost $2 million, in their chain of restaurants. I didn't even know they had one. Why do they have a chain of restaurants? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
The financial condition of the world's most exclusive dining hall why do they have the world's most exclusive dining hall? The Senate won't make its payroll next month. Who do you have working at these coffee shops? Your payroll's $250,000 for the month? The embarrassment of the Senate food service. 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 control of a contractor and all but guarantee lower wages and benefits for the outfit's new hires. Oh, no! The House is expected to agree its food service operation has been in private since the 1980s and the President's signature on the bill would officially end four decades of taxpayer, for their lunch! You have got to be kidding me.
Dianne Feinstein, she says it's catering. 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, that should be run like a business. There are parts of government that can be run like a business? Excuse me? All government should be run like a business. What party tell me I'm saying this seriously. I want to hear right now what part should Stu, what part of government should not be run as a business? Help me out. Come on. Go. Go ahead. Just one. Just one. All I want is one part that shouldn't be run like a business.
STU: I don't know.
GLENN: Give me one. Give me one.
STU: Potentially the
GLENN: Yeah. Here's one, the treasury. You don't want to run that like a business. You want to pay 5 cents to make a penny. That's what it costs, 5 cents to make a penny. Why are we making pennies? Maybe we should go back to wooden, wooden pennies, wooden nickels, what do you say? Do you know how much money someone like you could do you know how much money you could save? You could go in, you, me, Stu, anybody, your grandmother could go into Washington and save so much money. That's all you'd hear. You need lights? All right, we'll leave the lights on. I don't know if we should. I don't know if we even should leave the lights on in Washington. Stu, I have never seen hello and welcome back to the program. I have never seen a story, I don't think. We have to send this out. Dan, in the newsletter today can we send out the Senate votes to privatize its failing restaurants?
DAN: Absolutely. I already have it sitting here. It's unbelievable.
GLENN: I've never seen a story like this, never. I didn't know that they had a network of restaurants. I didn't know that they had been losing $18 million since 1993. I didn't know that they were losing $2 million this year alone.
DAN: I love the fact that, like, when you look at this again, think of people. This is a chain of restaurants. Think of people running an entire country of healthcare. Think of how good of a job they would do at that. And then look at, like and you want to talk about because we always talk about how, you know, innovation and everything else comes from private companies. Look at my favorite line in there is that in 10 years they only came up with 20 new menu items. Can you imagine a normal restaurant only adding two new menu over an entire series of restaurants, from coffeehouses to upscale dining to normal lunch places, all of these places, they only came up with two new ones a year. A year! What would they do for medicine? We would have leeches all over us every time.
GLENN: Oh, we would have leeches and baby aspirin. You go in and your head's split open and they would be like, "We have some bayer baby aspirin. Do you want that?" I don't, thank that's going to work. Flintstone chewable? Well, not actually Flintstones. They are just really cheap aspirins that didn't come out right in the aspirin factory. So they are kind of shaped oddly. We just tell people that they're flint stone chewables. They are not actually even chewable but chew them because we can't afford the water.
STU: It's like a bucket of pills, you know?
GLENN: Just try this one. What's your favorite color? "I kind of like blue." "Good, try this one, it's a blue pill." I think I know what those blue pills do. "No, you don't. The rest of the world has those blue pills. We can't afford those blue pills. That doesn't work."
I love reading the rest of this story. Past 10 years only 20 new items have been to the Senate menus. Even revenue in the once profitable indicator for example division has been decimated. When Democrats took power last year, Feinstein ordered several studies. Why do you need several? How about one study? "Yeah, Senator, your cafeteria sucks, blows chunks." "Well, I think I need another study on that one." "Yeah, Senator just did another study. Whew, whew, whew, really still sucks, really very, very suck a licious is what one customer said. She ordered several studies including a hiring consultant to examine management practices before deciding that privatization was the only possibility. You know she wept. That's why there were several studies. "Oh, you need to privatize this whole thing." Next! "Yeah, you need to privatize this thing." Next!
In a closed door meeting with Democrats in November, she practically she was practically heckled by her peers for suggesting privatization. Listen to that. That's how much they hate the capitalist system. Heckled by her peers for saying we shouldn't be in the restaurant business. Our founding fathers would have taken out their flintlocks. What the heck do you mean you're in the restaurant business? Quoting: I know what happens with privatization. This is from Sherrod Brown, Democrat from Ohio. What happens with privatization, Sherrod? "I know what happens with privatization." It becomes profitable? It actually is better? It's a more enjoyable experience? I know what happens with privatization. Workers lose jobs. They lose jobs. 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.
By the way, the wages of the approximately 100 Senate food service workers average $37,000 annually. They are working in a coffee shop making $37,000 annually. That's pretty sweet. Oh, and you have federal benefits, too. So that doesn't suck. In the final days of negotiations, Feinstein rolled her eyes and took a deep breath before explaining the ordeal that the Senate restaurant has become for her. "It's clearly not the sort of thing that I ran for the Senate to do, but someone has to do it. I know none of us want to privatize the restaurants," even though by one estimate Restaurants Associates, a private restaurateur would turn a large profit within three years and would begin paying the government not only in taxes but in commissions to the Senate, they would pay the Senate $800,000 a year, and Democrats scoff and heckle. That's fantastic. Oh, I can't wait until they have total control. Won't it be great? We can all eat like bums. We can all be really, really frustrated. Oh.
Oh, by the way, here's one other completely unrelated story. There's a new study out. 1/4 of New York City residents have herpes. According to the study, 26% of city residents have the virus that causes genital herpes, an incurable sexually transmitted infection that could cause painful genital sores and could double a person's risk for HIV. The study showed that the rate is higher among women than men, 36 compared to 19%. It was higher among blacks than whites, 49% versus 14%. What does the city say we should do? Give out more condoms. They have been giving out you go on the subways in New York, they will hand you condoms. You're like, no I mean, I'm just riding to work. I didn't have any romantic stuff planned here on this particular train, but thanks.