Uber is a company that unshackles people from government-controlled taxi service. Instead of having to call a cab company and pray that someone will someday pick you up at your house, or standing outside in the rain with a dozen other people looking for a cab, you can just hit a button on your phone and the car comes to you.
Hillary Clinton, who has trouble figuring out how a fax machine works, isn’t a fan of companies that aren’t constrained by onerous government regulations that limit their utility. So she wants to, in her words, “crack down” on them in the name of progress:
Since Uber is one of those innovative companies that has figured out a way to maximize profits while helping drivers earn extra cash by meeting consumers’ needs, various GOP presidential candidates pounced.
Services like Uber, Airbnb, and Lyft stimulate our economy and work towards lower prices. How is this bad @HillaryClinton?
Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 13, 2015
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush used Uber to travel to his various appointments in San Francisco. Conservative columnist Debra Saunders writes:
Bush arrived in a Toyota Camry ordered via Uber — the ride-hailing company that runs roughshod over the single-occupant vehicle model dear to car dealers.
It’s hard to think of a clearer contrast to Hillary Clinton. In 2014, she told NADA, ‘The last time I actually drove a car myself was 1996.’ The former first lady, who has Secret Service protection for life, has no reason to use Uber.
In a recent speech, the former secretary of state took Uber to task — without, and this is so Clinton-like, naming Uber. She said: ‘Many Americans are making extra money renting out a spare room, designing websites, selling products they design themselves at home or even driving their own car. This on-demand, or so-called gig, economy is creating exciting opportunities and unleashing innovation. But it’s also raising hard questions about workplace protections and what a good job will look like in the future.’
But note how Time magazine wrote it up:
Jeb Bush Hails Uber In San Francisco, Doesn’t Win Driver’s Vote
The Uber driver who picked up Jeb Bush Thursday on a San Francisco street corner doesn’t normally vote and didn’t recognize the Republican frontrunner. But the experience of driving a man who could be President, and talking about it with a reporter, may get him to the polls this year.
He said he will probably pull the lever for Hillary Clinton.
Bush is traveling around San Francisco Thursday using the ride-sharing app, the latest embrace by the Republican of the company, which has fought taxi regulations and has come under fire from some Democrats for the scant benefits it offers its network of independent drivers. The GOP has emerged as the company’s staunchest defender, as the party tries to align itself with the hip, and liberal, Bay Area culture as they appeal for younger voters and top donors.
Munir Algazaly, 35, an immigrant from Yemen who has been driving Ubers for a year and a half, said ‘I had no idea,’ that the 6’4″ passenger riding shotgun was the Republican presidential candidate.
The reporter doesn’t ask the driver if he’s heard about Clinton’s campaign against Uber and other sharing-economy companies. Or, if he did, he doesn’t include it in his story, which doesn’t even mention Hillary’s recent speech. Not that I’d trust reporters to accurately convey her call for regulations in the name of worker fairness (as opposed to easing up employment taxes, allowing more personal choice in healthcare decisions, or easing access to 401(k)s and pension plans).
US News & World Report took Time‘s report and turned it into:
Jeb Bush Fights Hillary Clinton on Uber, Loses Driver’s Vote
It’s kind of hard to showcase a policy difference with Clinton when the media cover for her and don’t even bring it up with the driver who supposedly picked her side, no?
