Has Barack Ever....

Forget about how would he vote if he happened to drop by the Senate for a roll call. The real question is, has he ever been there for lunch?

Democrats are squabbling over whether the Senate food service operations, currently running a big deficit each year, should be privatized. This may appear like a simple decision - this year's loses are at $2 million already - but Democrats don't believe much in capitalism and free markets.

Except for Dianne Feinstein who pushed through a privatization measure.

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."

Feinstein seems to have recognized that when people are on the dole, they start to expect the handouts to last forever.

In a letter to colleagues, Feinstein said that the Government Accountability Office found that "financially breaking even has not been the objective of the current management due to an expectation that the restaurants will operate at a deficit annually."

And, of course, what's the motivation to offer good food and service if you're living on subsidies?

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.

Why would they? You see the House food service operation was privatized back in the 1980's!

Not all Senate Moonbats are happy with the Feinstein decision. 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."

Menendez seems to have recognized what we've known for a long time. Senate Democrats just have no compassion.