Posted on 03/18/2013 7:51:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Well, isn't this just peachy. This is actually the first time I've heard anything about it, but apparently, the public servants of the United States Senate have been enjoying taxpayer-subsidized trims and shaves on Capitol Hill since before the Civil War --- an oh-so-beloved tradition that, in merely the past fifteen years, has cost taxpayers over five million dollars. Senate Hair Care Services is technically open to the public, for those who know/care about it, but last year alone the salon needed a $300,000 bailout from the Senate coffers to cover their jacked-up costs.
The convenient little Senatorial perk has steadily resisted several sporadic efforts to reform the outfit over the years, but sequestration is once again focusing some attention on the endeavor, the Weekly Standard reports:
The barbershop of the U.S. Senate has run deficits of approximately $350,000 a year for each of the last 15 years. So Senate sergeant at arms Terry Gainer has decided to try out a new model, one that has looked rather unfashionable during the Obama era: privatization. …
Gainer has tried to trim Senate Hair Care Services for the past few years. Now the political climate troubling everyone else on Capitol Hill is allowing him to move faster than he anticipated towards privatizing it completely. …
The sequestration’s required spending cuts provide convenient cover. Gainer is offering early retirement to all eligible employees, hoping to replace them with independent contractors. Four employees have already accepted the offer, and they plan to retire in the next 60 days. Gainer likens these “buyouts” to those that corporations often make. He has no timeline for complete privatization, but is determined to see it through.
The other chamber managed to revamp their own deficit-running, government-subsidized barbershop in 1995, when House Republicans passed a resolution as a part of Speaker Gingrich’s privatization task force — is it really so very outrageous that the Senate should have to do the same?
RE: The House babershop, on the other hand, was privatized almost 20 years ago. It runs at a profit, which stands to reason since the three staff stylists are independent contractors.
This one example alone would be a good advertising point that can be used by the GOp if they are smart enough.
Just use this one example to show how government running things inevitable leads to bankruptcy and apply it to Obamacare, Energy Subsidies and Housing, and you shall have made a great advertising statement.
Then you can continue by citing another example:
EXCERPT:
Senate Cafeteria: Democrat Incompetence in Microcosm
If a government-run cafeteria bleeds the red ink of cost overruns year after year, why on earth should anyone but the craziest, stupidest of fools believe that they can successfully run the health care system which represents over 1/6th of the economy?
For that matter, if the Democrat-controlled Senate can’t run a cafeteria, why on earth should anyone trust them to run the country?
The first three paragraphs of an AP article titled “Money-losing Senate restaurants to go private” read:
WASHINGTON (AP) – The famed bean soup served in Senate restaurants is made up of dried navy beans, smoked ham hocks, onions and a million-dollar tab for the taxpayer.
That menu for financial distress could be about to change as the Senate, following the lead taken by the House more than 20 years ago, moves to privatize the restaurants, coffee shops and cafeterias located in the Capitol and Senate office buildings.
The Senate last week passed a bill authorizing Senate restaurants, now run by the Architect of the Capitol, to go private, ending months of back-and-forth between Democrats appalled by the operation’s money-losing ways and other Democrats worried that restaurant workers would get thrown out like the ham bones.
RE: I failed to mention who cut my hair for the past 40 years..... my wife.
You might not know it or admit it, but you’ve been paying for it for the past 40 years. :)
Bean soup. That explains a lot about the smell emanating from the Senate.
The problem being that the Republicans in the Senater are no different than the Democrats in the Senate. The GOP took over the Senate as well about the time that the House was privatizing their barbershop, so the GOP in that body could have made the same improvements as the House did. But they didn’t. The Senate kept its wasteful ways under both Republican control and Democrat control.
They're think they're royalty because so many people must kiss their butts to get regulations passed to 'help' (give advantage) to their companies. It's time to put our 'public servants' in normal office buildings and quit building palaces for these scammers. Might help them remember they're hired by the people - not folks we must worship...
Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln were worth the palaces that were built in DC - the current crop of 'legislators' is NOT...
I’ve cut my own hair for ~20 years now.
LOL.... you are soooooo right. But I still got the better part of the deal. ;>)
I tried that once and had to wear a baseball cap for a couple of weeks. I actually shaved it. It was VERY ugly. LOL
Agreed. It’s nuts. I can see getting things for the job like office stuff. But they should be made to pay for their lunches and anything else not connected with their jobs. It’s BS.
We all pay for ourselves AND for our *elected nobility*.
Not a justification, just a fact.
Personally, I am done subsidizing any established political party. If someone wants to mount an independent run for Congress, they can, of course, campaign for donations. But, if I donate and they win and then they just become another perfumed elitist living off the high taxes they vote for me to pay, I have only myself to blame.
I don’t know how we got here. The majority of campaign money comes from the very wealthy and very powerful. They call the shots. I will assume they get their money’s worth. I have donated and I don’t have anything to show for it but betrayal and theft.
Note that elected representatives and Senators are constantly stating that they are *independent* and “will vote my conscience.” Fine. Pay for your own campaign, then, or forgo all the tax-funded perks and even the salary which is far above what the average worker can achieve. The argument runs that this will lead to only the rich running. Well, that is already the case. IMO, if they are already wealthy, they can pay for their own campaign and if they aren’t, but are running to become wealthy at my expense, they can take out a loan and pay it off after they win.
I’m done.
oh I am laughing out loud...
I’ve cut my hubby’s hair for the past 50 years also...and each trim takes less time...but my hands are not as fast as they were either...
raised two kids who watched me work and both could give a good H/C in their teens..daughter went on to the profession and still gives her brother his H/C when he visits!!! she even does mom’s hair now...as I’ve ‘hung it up’ but oh how I LOVE THE MEMORIES...
I am glad I made you laugh. ;>)
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