Bernie Sanders uses ‘unregulated’ Uber for all his taxi rides

[November 07, 2015] By Eric Boehm /
 
 Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders uses Uber all the time.

File this one under “do as I say, not as I do” — a hallmark of most socialist policies, when you think about it — because Sanders, the socialist seeking the Democratic Party’s nod for president in 2016, always takes Uber instead of a taxi.

Literally. Always.

National Journal published an analysis Wednesday that examines how the presidential candidates in the two major parties spend their campaign cash on things like hotels and taxis. While most candidates use Uber more than taxis to get around, Sanders was one of only a few candidates to report using Uber 100 percent of the time when he or his campaign staff need a ride.

Martin O’ Malley, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry and Scott Walker are the other candidates who used Uber 100 percent of the time, according to National Journal.
 

Overall, candidates have reported spending $34,900 on Uber — that’s 75 percent of all spending on taxi and ride-sharing.

Hillary Clinton, whom Sanders is chasing for the Democratic nomination, is one of only two candidates — Mike Huckabee is the other — to report more spending on taxis than on Uber, according to the analysis.

That’s funny, because Sanders has been far more outspoken than Clinton about the ride-sharing app. He’s blasted Uber as an unregulated corporation that’s destroying jobs and forcing workers to accept lower wages.

In an August interview with Bloomberg, Sanders said he has “serious problems” with Uber because the company is “unregulated.”

A spokesman for Uber later pointed out, to The Hill newspaper, that Uber is in fact subject to regulations in 54 different jurisdictions within the United States.

For what it’s worth, Clinton has also voiced support for changing regulations on ride-sharing services like Uber.

“I’ll crack down on bosses who exploit employees by misclassifying them as contractors,” she said in July, a pointed reference to an ongoing legal battle in California, where some Uber workers are challenging their status as contractors.

The California Labor Commission in June ruled the woman who filed the lawsuit must be considered an employee of Uber, which, if applied broadly, would wreck the business model for Uber and other businesses in the sharing economy.