Jonah Goldberg on the Senate privatizing its restaurants. 

This was a painful decision for many Democrats who believe that privatization can’t be justified simply because it delivers better service and higher quality for less money. “What about the workers?” they cried. Apparently, some Democrats feel that the top priority in the restaurant business is to generate paychecks for people who are bad at their jobs.

Feinstein, head of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, was forced to deal with reality. “It’s cratering,” The Washington Post quoted her as saying. “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.”

Yes, yes, go on, Dianne. Run with that thought. Explore it, as the therapists say.

Perhaps you might meditate on the District of Columbia’s public school system, which spends roughly $14,000 a pupil in exchange for one of the worst educations in the country. Every year, one of the greatest mysteries in the nation’s capital is whether textbooks have been delivered to the right kids, or even to the right schools. It can take until Christmas to get it all worked out. FedEx Corp., meanwhile, can tell you where any of its millions of packages are in more than 100 countries, right now. (Why not just FedEx the textbooks to the kids?)

Or you might ponder the hilarious example of New York’s OTB. For most of the last 40 years, these state-run betting parlors have actually lost money. Apparently, the house always wins - except when the government is the bookie.

Look wherever you like, it’s not as if there’s a shortage of examples. And more are on the way.

Indeed, all augurs point to a tsunami of government ambition in the years ahead, particularly if Barack Obama wins in November. Obama promises a national health-insurance plan overseen by the kith and kin who serve the Senate its navy bean soup.

He believes that the failure of public schools - like DC’s - is largely attributable to the under-funding of education. DC’s schools already are among the best-funded and worst schools in the country. By all means, let’s have more of the same!

And he’ll celebrate it as change!