Fox News's Shep Smith: 'Every Vote Against The Public Option Is A Vote For The Insurance Companies'

TPM

In a segment just now with Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), Fox News's Shepard Smith gave a stunning argument in favor of the public option.

"Over the last 10 years health care costs in American have skyrocketed. Regular folks cannot afford it, so they tax the system by not getting preventive medicine," Smith said. "And we all end up paying for it. As the costs have gone up, the insurance industry's profits, on average, have gone up 350 percent. And it's the insurance companies which have paid and which have contributed to senators and congressmen on both sides of the aisle to the point where now we can't get what all concerned on Capitol Hill all seem to [believe] and more than 60 percent of Americans say they support, a public option."

He refuted Barrasso's argument that the public option is a government option.

"Every vote against the public option is a vote for the insurance companies," Smith said.

Video after the jump.

The likelihood of a bill without a strong public option "has been an enormous win for the insurance industry," Smith said. "But I wonder what happens to the American people when we come out with legislation which requires everyone to have insurance ... but does not give a public option. Therefore, millions more people will have to buy insurance from the very corporations that are overcharging us. ... It seems like we, the people, are the ones getting the shaft here."

"How do we keep costs down without a public option?" he asked.

Smith is known as Fox's least conservative voice, and someone who marches to his own beat. So of all the channel's personalities, he's the most likely to make this argument.

In June, Smith earned praise -- and ire -- for calling out right-wing Fox emailers who he said were "out there in a scary place" after the shooting at the Holocaust Museum.

And in April, Smith famously condemned torture. "We are America!" he said, banging the table. "I don't give a rat's ass if it helps. We are AMERICA! We do not fucking torture!"

In today's interview, one could argue that he was just playing devil's advocate. But in the next segment he interviewed a former aide to Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) on the same topic. While he did take the other side -- that a public option would put the private insurers out of business -- he did so with less passion and spent much less time than he did with Barrasso.

All in all, it's still a stunning clip.