Tom Coburn: “It is interesting that two-thirds of the airlines don't have pretzels anymore because they have to make a profit, and…”

“It is interesting that two-thirds of the airlines don't have pretzels anymore because they have to make a profit, and they have to report to their shareholders. So it is not there anymore. We heard a statement that subsidies have been reduced by 40 percent. That is the operating subsidies. The total subsidies haven't been reduced at all. They are actually going up. They are actually going up by this amount over the next 5 years. These are Amtrak's numbers, based on this bill. These are the numbers of the Department of Transportation, based on this bill. Now, if you would break even on food service, there wouldn't be an increase in total subsidies. But none of us would run a business with a loss leader that would continue to undermine our ability to put the capital into business and to stay in business. We would, in fact, make a change. This amendment gives them 2 years. It says, the first year--you get 2 years to lose money, so the first year if you have lost money, renegotiate it, raise your prices, cut your labor costs. The cost of food service on Amtrak is 52 percent labor costs. The average person doling out the food on Amtrak makes twice what somebody does in the private sector doing the same thing. So what we really have is a subsidy to the food service workers on Amtrak because that is 52 percent of the cost, rather than a subsidy to the food.”