Perestroika Begins in the Cafeteria

Who says privatization in Washington is dead?

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[.]

It only took two decades of losing more than $1 million per year selling crap food to a captive audience for the World's Greatest Digestive Body to catch up to the junior privateers in the House. But not without a few ridiculous quotes from Democratic senators!

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), speaking for the group of senators who opposed privatizing the restaurants, said that "you cannot stand on the Senate floor and condemn the privatization of workers, and then turn around and privatize the workers here in the Senate and leave them out on their own." […]

"I know what happens with privatization. Workers lose jobs, and 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," Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a staunch labor union ally, said recently.

Washington Post story here.