Short version: it’s an app that matches people who need a taxi to somewhere with a local driver willing to sell them a ride. The taxi companies hate it with the white-hot fury of a billion exploding suns, because it’s: cheaper; more reliable; more transparent (you can look up the drivers and leave feedback on rides); and threatens to make a taxi medallion pretty much worthless. Which is why some urban areas – Democratic controlled, naturally – are starting to protect the taxi companies by effectively banning cheaper cab rides.
But that’s fine: that means that the GOP can weigh in on the side of free markets and cheaper cab rides. I am so totally happy to encourage them to do that:
The RNC last week launched a pro-free market, anti-government regulations petition to show support for the Uber – building their own lists and raising money in the process.
“Government has a role to play, but that role isn’t to protect the status quo. It should be consumers, not government bureaucrats or legislators, that decide what companies get our business,” Priebus said.
Priebus echoed that sentiment with an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune, coordinated with the RNC’s annual summer meeting in that city, that lauded Uber-friendly Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner over Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn.
Continue reading Republican party coming out in support for Uber’s cheaper cab rides.