George Will represented common sense as usual in the latest edition of ABC’s This Week. In the debate, Will essentially reenacted Tyson vs. Spinks in his back-and-forth with former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. Reich trotted out the old canard that medical insurance companies are making “huge profits.” However, the facts tell a different story. In fact, medical insurance is one the LEAST profitable industries in the United States. However, the highlight of the exchange came just a bit later. Will said that in order to lower premiums and increase customer satisfaction medical insurance companies should be permitted to compete accross state lines , like……. every other industry. Reich’s retort was

…[T]he recipients of health insurance don’t know what they are buying very often. Until there are common standards, minimal standards, then people are going to be taken.

To which George Will said:

There you have the premise of this legislation and the core of today’s liberalism: the American people are such dopes they can’t be counted upon to buy their own insurance.

And that is the ballgame folks. Democrats look down on ordinary people from their ivory towers. They think that all the rubes in ‘flyover country’ are know-nothing hayseeds that need Ivy League educated brats to oversee every facet of their lives. That’s why liberals come out with books like What’s the Matter With Kansas? (you can practically feel the sneering from the cutting-room floor) It is also the reason they fear and hate people like Sarah Palin – they see her as a regular person who has lived a life in line with reality – unlike them.

Here is the video followed by a transcript:

ROBERT REICH, AMERICAN PROSPECT: The health insurers are not, George, you said they’re popular and everybody likes their health insurer. They like their doctor. They hate their health insurer. And health insurance is going up in terms of rates 20, 30, 40, 50 percent in many states. In fact, Goldman Sachs just this past week has said to its many of its investors, “Invest in some insurance companies because they don’t have competition, and they have, are exhibiting huge profits.” That is money directly out of the pockets of Americans.

GEORGE WILL, ABC: A, you say they have huge profits. As you know, confiscate all the profits of all the health insurance companies, with those profits you could finance our healthcare for 48 hours. What you do for the next 363 days I don’t know. Second, you say there’s not enough competition? Fine, let them compete in a national market across state lines.

REICH: Yes, let them compete across state lines, fine. But not a race to the bottom. Set minimum federal standards because we’ve seen over and over again that the recipients of health insurance don’t know what they are buying very often. Until there are common standards, minimal standards, then people are going to be taken. And that is what’s happened over and over again.

WILL: There you have the premise of this legislation and the core of today’s liberalism: the American people are such dopes they can’t be counted upon to buy their own insurance.