--- title: Uber: Bush, Clinton Face Tricky Political Questions description: Both Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton are trying to make Uber a campaign issue, but it won't play out along the usual lines. canonical: https://time.com/3960082/uber-jeb-bush-hillary-clinton/ author: Jay Newton-Small article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-16T02:04:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:47:57.247Z article:section: Politics og:title: Jeb Bush Hails Uber, While Hillary Clinton Criticizes og:description: The ride-sharing company hit the 2016 campaign trail. og:url: https://time.com/3960082/uber-jeb-bush-hillary-clinton/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc819d469923a26e9/69885ab8e53abaa4a74de961/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-basta.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at The New School on July 13, 2015 in New York City. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jeb Bush Hails Uber, While Hillary Clinton Criticizes twitter:description: The ride-sharing company hit the 2016 campaign trail. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc819d469923a26e9/69885ab8e53abaa4a74de961/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-basta.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bush Hails Uber, While Clinton Criticizes > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=82b927ca-6995-4c77-aae7-ba9d397d8356&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: See Jeb Bush's Political Career Through the Years [Watch (HLS stream): See Jeb Bush's Political Career Through the Years](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3nRIB78f.m3u8) (2:37)  _Published 2015-06-12. From his unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 1994 through his decision to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, here are some of the top moments from Jeb Bush's political career._  by [Jay Newton-Small](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/)  ## Jay Newton-Small Jul 16, 2015 2:04 AM UTC  Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the New School in New York City on July 13, 2015 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the New School in New York City on July 13, 2015 Andrew Burton—Getty Images  by [Jay Newton-Small](https://time.com/author/jay-newton-small/)  ## Jay Newton-Small Jul 16, 2015 2:04 AM UTC Uber hitched an unexpected ride on the 2016 campaign trail this week. During a rollout of her economic plan Monday, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton took companies like Uber to task for not giving drivers benefits. On Friday morning, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush plans on hailing an Uber in San Francisco to show his support for the ride-sharing company and others like it. For some Republicans, the contrast made Clinton an easy target. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, argued the former Secretary of State was out of touch with the younger generation. “If you look at millenials, we love those companies \[like Uber\], we love consumer choices,” she said. “It’s a big mistake, I think, that Secretary Clinton chose to go after those companies that are really disrupting those industries for the better.” But the politics of Uber aren’t so clear cut for either side. While Republicans love the idea of breaking taxi unions, GOP support for the sharing economy [isn’t so clear-cut](http://www.npr.org/2015/06/26/417675866/service-jobs-like-uber-driver-blur-lines-between-old-job-categories). Most of the sharing economy vanguard—companies like Uber, AirBnB and Lyft—were born in California, a big blue state, and their corporate blueprints assume the kind of large social safety net favored by Democrats. As Uber CEO Travis Kalanick [told reporters in Washington in November](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/11/17/why-uber-loves-obamacare/), the Affordable Care Act was “huge” for his company because the “democratization of those types of benefits allow people to have more flexible ways to make a living.” In other words, his company didn’t have to provide health insurance because drivers could buy it on their own through Obamacare. (That was eight months before a California court ruled that Uber drivers are, in fact, employees and thus were owed typical benefits, a decision the company is appealing.) Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, who built a fortune in cell phone technology, calls it “the gig economy.” Part-time or temporary workers already account for 40.4% of the workforce, up from 35.3% in 2006\. Many of these workers have several jobs doing things like driving for Uber, renting out their couch through Airbnb or doing freelance journalism, software coding or videography. These jobs provide workers with flexibility and give them an alternative to unemployment, but the drawback is that they don’t come with the standard package of benefits most full-time workers have long enjoyed. Underlining Clinton’s concerns about the gig economy, Jake Sullivan, one of her top policy advisors, told a group of Washington journalists at a breakfast Tuesday organized by the _Christian Science Monitor_ that there’s no easy answer. “It’s a huge question and a very hard one,” he said. While Clinton faces the risk of looking uncool by criticizing companies like Uber, Bush faces an even tougher question. After all, repealing Obamacare is at the top of every 2016 Republican candidates’ list. It’s one thing to ride in an Uber, but quite another to figure out how to fix its business model if the safety net shrinks. But if the 2016 candidates are just skirting around the edges of the issue, Congress has barely touched it. A self-described pro-business moderate, Warner [is just about the only one on Capitol Hill](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2015/06/26/no-one-in-washington-is-talking-about-the-problems-with-the-sharing-economy-except-this-lawmaker/) thinking about these issues. He’s[ exploring legislation](http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/how-congress-can-make-life-better-for-uber-drivers/2015/06/03/621d89f4-09f8-11e5-9e39-0db921c47b93%5Fstory.html) that would help freelancers, such as creating an Obamacare-type program for retirement benefits or building off the model that some trade unions have for contract workers to receive benefits. He also is looking to revamp the tax code to create a category for “[dependent workers](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/asking-tough-questions-about-the-gig-economy/2015/06/18/b43f2d0a-1461-11e5-9ddc-e3353542100c%5Fstory.html),” a hybrid between a contractor and a full-time employee that would end the debates, if not the legal challenges, on exactly what kind of an employee gig economy workers are. But Warner is months, if not years, away from legislation and little is likely to pass before the election, regardless. Which leaves the issue open for debate among the 2016 field. Where should workers in the gig economy get benefits: from their employers or the government? ## Transcript The younger Bush brother did not make the governor's chair in Florida. The older Bush brother, George W. Bush, did make it in Texas. This is a mixed night for the Bush family. I know we can do better. It requires a new style of leadership, commitment to service to others, and an ability to bring people together rather than divide I wanna be the governor that leads us there. And in Florida, Jeb Bush, 56 to 44 over Buddy MacKay, the Democratic candidate. My brother said in one of his speeches, my brother said he's gonna deliver Florida. [ LAUGH ] He did say That he said it more than once. Will he deliver it? He also told it was going to be a cold Thanksgiving dinner if I don't help him out, and then we're going to carry it. We could be in for a long night as voters decide whether Vice President Al Gore or Texas Governor George Bush will be the next president of the United States. It is that close. ABC News is now going to project that Florida goes to Mr. Bush. While the closest elections in American history Bush has won it. The rigor of the common core state standards must be the new minimum in classrooms. And so for those states that are choosing a path other than common core I say this. You should be aiming even higher. And be bolder and raise standards and ask more for our students and the system. The simple fact is there is no plan to deport 11 Million people. We should give them a path to legal status. Where they work, where they don't receive government benefits, where they don't break the law, where they learn English, and where they make a contribution to our society. Knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion? I would of and so would of Hillary Clinton. Just to remind everybody and so would of almost everybody that was confronted with the intelligence they got. By the way guess who thinks that those mistakes took place as well. George W. Bush. Your brother. Yeah. I mean so just for the news flash to the world that they're trying to find places that there's big space between me and my brother, this might not be one of those. I'm running for president in 2016, and the focus is going to be about how we, if I run, how do you create high sustained economic growth where more people have a chance at our success. I don't know if I'd be a good candidate or a bad one. Kinda know how a Republican can win, whether it's me or somebody else. And it has to be much more uplifting, much more positive, much more willing to be practical now in the Washington world. Lose the primary to win the general. 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