Some liberals like to pass Josh Barro off as a conservative. The New York Times correspondent debunked that notion himself, tweeting that he was most easily understood as a "moderate." But after his appearance on MSNBC today, another term might more aptly apply: elitist liberal.
Speaking with Alex Wagner, Barro crammed a carload of condescension into thirty seconds. Barro claimed that health insurance is "weirdly complicated," and thus that Americans can't be permitted to choose it as they would other products. No, we can't let people use their "own judgment." The free market "doesn't work very well" with health insurance. Individuals can't be "trusted" with it, and thus government must be involved and we need people like . . . Jonathan Gruber.
JOSH BARRO: I think this drives conservatives especially mad on health care because they think they have a view on health care that is both simple and correct, which is: why can't we just sell health care like any other product? Why can't it just be something that you go out and buy whatever plan is best for you using your own judgment? Why does the government have to involve itself so much? And it turns out health insurance is this product that's weirdly complicated in lots of ways where a free market in it doesn't work very well. But it's this very appealing thing to say: why do you have to get people in here like Jonathan Gruber messing all this up, when I can be trusted with this myself?
