Source: Rush Limbaugh radio program July 27, 2015
RUSH: Okay, I'll just give you an example of de Blasio and this Uber business. I'm telling you this is just a forerunner, just a little tease because you've got city governments all over this country trying to shut Uber down and they're all liberal government. I want to quote de Blasio. This is the new mayor New York City, and this guy has unwittingly just -- in his own words -- explained why liberalism is at odds with the US Constitution. Ready? "The people..." This is what he said:
"The people of our cities do not like the notion of those who are particularly wealthy and powerful dictating the terms to a government elected by the people. As a multibillion-dollar company, Uber thinks it can dictate to government." He's got it 180 degrees out of phase. Uber is American citizens! Uber is a couple of entrepreneurs who thought they had a new way of beating what happened to be taxi cartels in major cities, and they came up with a way to provide people a better way of getting around in automobiles at much less money.
So the mayor of New York comes along and says, 'The people of our cities don't like the notion of those who are particularly wealthy and powerful dictating the terms to a government elected by the people." The United States Constitution does not limit Uber. The United States Constitution limits Bill de Blasio. The US Constitution is written specifically to limit the power of government over people, and this guy is making it patently obvious why liberals are at odds with the US Constitution.
This is what's the teachable moment for young Millennials and low-information voters who happen to love Uber. They think Uber is a "progressive" company because they use smartphones and high-tech to do their business. They just naturally assume that Uber is a bunch of leftists -- and personally, they may be. I have no idea. But they're being targeted to be put out of business by liberal city governments. And once this is explained to them, you can see the light go off.
I've had a bunch of people who teach college kids tell me this. They explain this Uber situation to them, and they love Uber. A lot of people love Uber. In fact, that's where de Blasio was wrong because the problem is what people don't like when they found out it's happening is politicians taking things away from them that they like and are voting for with their pocketbooks, and forcing them to spend is more money than necessary to satisfy some cabal that exists between government and, in this case, a taxi cartel in New York City.
Anyway, that's just it is forerunner of it. But I think it's just classic. If young people can be made to understand that it is government that is supposed to be limited, government reach, it's what the US Constitution's all about, and that's not taught. You know what's taught about the US Constitution today? You know what's taught about it? It's taught that it doesn't go far enough. It's taught that the Constitution needs to be changed, amended, reanalyzed, because it doesn't grant government enough power.
This Uber example is a way of illustrating the folly and the fallacy of that.
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RUSH:Here's Steven in Dallas. He's an Uber driver. Steven, great to have you on the program. Hello.
CALLER: Wow. It's an honor, Rush. Longtime listener, first-time caller, retired military. I drive for Uber here in Dallas. You know, we talk about these towns that have really kind of closed down Uber, and I think it's gotta be, you know, money under the table. Because anybody that's used Uber not only swears by it, but do not absolutely want to go back to the cab companies. I think the cab companies here in Dallas in particular, if they were terrible, they'd be an improvement. The service that I provide as an Uber driver is unmatched by any cabdriver here in Dallas. So we have municipalities here in Texas that have closed Uber done. San Antonio is one of those instances. But the cities that have embraced Uber are creating a service.
RUSH: I know people love it and swear by it. It's just that I'm too famous to be able to use Uber. I can't. You know, it's one of the many problems of fame is you can't do all kinds of things that other people can. I just can't do it.
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RUSH: Now, back to this Uber story 'cause all I did on that was give you the de Blasio quote, and this story is rich. The Wall Street Journal: "Progressive New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Socialist Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo found common cause on a shared threat while attending a recent climate-change conference at the Vatican." Stop and think of this: Here these two socialist wackos are at a climate change conference at the Vatican and they get all fired up about Uber.
"'The people of our cities don't like the notion of those who are particularly wealthy and powerful dictating the terms to a government elected by the people,' Mr. de Blasio declared. 'As a multibillion-dollar company, Uber thinks it can dictate to government.'" Mr. de Blasio, you've got it all wrong. The people in New York and elsewhere see your association with the taxi cartel as exactly what you are claiming: "particularly wealthy and powerful dictating the terms to a government."
But the big point for me here is, "What what de Blasio is actually saying..."
Here it is. That's right. Talking Points Memo. "DOJ: No, We Were Not Asked to Launch a Criminal Probe into Hillary Clinton's E-mails." This is what it is. This is exactly what I saw. The date of this thing is Friday. It's late Friday when this thing hit. They were not asked to launch a criminal probe into Clinton's e-mails. The story was that these two inspectors general did and demanded and wanted, and that story ran all weekend. Okay. So now you know that I did see it.
But the point about this de Blasio thing is, this is rich, because here he obviously believes that government is the center of everybody's life and that citizens don't like anybody dictating to government what government has. No! (summarized) "If there's gonna be any dictating, the government's gonna be doing it. Not the people. The people don't get to tell government what to do." That's how screwed up this guy is. But that's what modern day liberalism is. This is what they all believe.
Constitution shmonstitution, balderdash. There is dictating! The government gets to dictate. People elect the government to tell other people what they can and can't do. It's not the other way around. It's not governed by and for the American people or what have you. But as the Journal writes (it's an L. Gordon Crovitz piece), "But before Mr. de Blasio could return from Rome, he learned that people really don't like when politicians try to take away their favorite app for getting around the government's taxi cartel.
"The mayor was forced to drop his plan to limit Uber to a 1% annual increase in cars, far below the current rate. It's hard to see why Mr. de Blasio thought that would be good politics. Two million New Yorkers have downloaded the Uber app onto their mobile devices -- a quarter of the city's population and more than twice the number of citizens who voted for Mr. de Blasio." So more people have the Uber app than voted for this clown. "But it's easy to understand why he views Uber as an ideological threat.
"A tipping point is in sight where big-government politicians can no longer deprive consumers of new choice made possible by technology -- whether for car rides, car sharing or home rentals. Mr. de Blasio's experience should encourage other politicians to sign up for innovation." This is so, so on point. Technology does hold the key to overrunning these libs. What's fascinating about this, folks...
If you look at, say, Millennials as a group that you would want to teach and open their eyes about the perils of big government, the problems of big government -- and how big government impairs them and limits their freedom -- this is it. This is the story. This is the case. Uber. Because they love Uber. Now, most of them probably think Uber is a nice, progressive liberal company because it's young and hip just like they are. And they don't understand government going after it.
All they know is that Uber is there when they want it. Uber gets 'em where they wanted to go, they get to use their phone to get it all done. It's just whenever they want to do it, they don't have to stand around and wait for a cab that's dirty being driven by somebody they can't understand and may stink in there. They don't have to put up with any of that, and they can be in touch with the driver. He can say, "I'm five minutes away. Meet me wherever. You be at the corner." It's simple, it really, really works.
And here come big-government mayors trying to shut it down. With that story in the right teacher's hands, a whole bunch of people can be shown what they have not been taught elsewhere in school: What big government liberalism does to individual liberty and freedom. Think about this: "Uber has become a wedge issue. The Conservative mayor of London, Boris Johnson, took the opposite approach from Mr. de Blasio.
"'You are dealing with a huge economic force which is consumer choice, and the taxi trade needs to recognize that,' he said recently. He told a gathering of taxi drivers in London: 'I'm afraid it is a tragic fact that there are now more than a million people in this city who have the Uber app.' When cabbies objected that Uber drivers were undercutting their prices, Mr. Johnson replied: 'Yes, they are. It's called the free market,'" and that's and that's what competition does.
Competition lowers prices for the consumer while giving them more choice, and liberal big city mayors want to deny that choice and keep prices high because they are in bed with the existing taxi cartel. "Presidential candidates are divided as well. Hillary Clinton implicitly criticized Uber in her campaign speech on economic policy, saying the 'so-called "gig economy"' is 'raising hard questions about workplace protections and what a good job will look like.'"
Now, the "gig economy" is another way of talking about independent contractors. Your job is a series of gigs rather than being an employee, and the government wants you to be an employee. You know why they want you to be an employee? Because then they get to withhold your taxes from you. They get to withhold your Social Security, and they get to demand that you have health care. When you're an employee, they have total control over most of your money. When you're an independent contractor, they don't.
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RUSH: Here you go. Here you go. Marco Rubio has a chapter in his presidential campaign book called "American Dreams," and the chapter in his campaign book is called, "An America Safe for Uber." He describes, explaining to a college class that he taught, how Miami had banned Uber cars. "As my progressive young students listened to me explain why government was preventing them from using their cell phones to get home from the bars on Saturday night, I could see their minds change. Before I knew it, I was talking to a bunch of 20- and 21-year-old anti-government activists."
So, it's a big deal. Government endorsed cartels, like New York City has with the cab industry. You know what the price of a medallion is to have a cab? They limit the number of cabs in the city, obviously. And they limit... That's part of the protection scheme. They limit the number of medallions, and there's not one medallion per cab. A medallion owner could have a fleet of 20 cabs. It just depends on who's able to make what deal. But there is a finite, total number of cabs that gets increased every year based on a formula so forth, but they're in bed with the city government. It's protectionism, and they try to keep competitors out, protect the prices of the cabs, the fares.
And Gordon Crovitz with the Wall Street Journal says these "government-enforced cartels are the ones that fall faster and harder to disruptive innovation than most businesses. When change comes, it's more dramatic than in industries that already have competition." But if you have a business that is protected by government -- city government, state government, town council, federal government, whatever -- then you don't face competition. And if you do face competition, it's really hard on the competitors.
It's made nearly impossible. So you do not learn the rigors, and when change comes along that they can't control, and this kind of technologically driven innovative change in the hands of millions of people, a government like de Blasio, he can try, but he can't stop anything. He's gonna be overpowered by the numbers. And those people, those cartels fall faster and harder because the change is dramatic and they're not prepared to deal with it. "The fate of taxis is a warning to other regulated industries that new technologies always give customers more choice and better price.
"Citizens can always make choice to vote for candidates who embrace innovation" and those who don't.
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