I admire the passion of Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. Having gotten to spend a lot of time with him over the last five years or so, I know him as someone who really pours his heart and soul into just about everything he does. I figure it takes that kind of drive to have his level of epic success in business, and it certainly takes an Energizer-Bunny type level of activity to get elected to statewide office as a Republican in California, let alone to now be running for the Republican nomination for Governor. I know Steve to be a good man, who is passionate about making a difference.
I preface this column with these comments because I don’t want FR readers to misinterpret a critique of an individual policy proposal of the Commissioner as some sort of rebuke of the man, which it certainly is not. Nevertheless I have been troubled by a proposal he has generated from the Department of Insurance, which I wanted to address. I have brought this up directly with Poizner, so he won’t be surprised to read it here.
Last year Insurance Commissioner Poizner rolled out what I thought was a creative and useful plan to review the substantial financial holdings of insurance companies (it is a huge amount of money as laws require insurance companies to keep huge amounts of assets in case they need to pay out large numbers of claims) and ensure that none of investments are illegally invested into countries, such as Iran, that harbor terrorists or worse. A list is maintained by the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in the Treasury Department of such companies, delineated through a pretty rigorous process. That makes sense, because it is serious business to restrict the private property rights of Americans, telling them where they cannot invest their money, and what they can or cannot own.
**There is more – click the link**
February 9th, 2010 at 12:00 am
Flash Report makes a living reporting on government….the good, the bad and the ugly….lets not forget it….always follow the money!!