As I read this article in the Los Angeles Times, it caused me to want to renew my call for Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner to stop his pursuit of trying to force Insurance Companies to divest from investments that he does not like, which is what is going on here. The United States government has an official process whereby, if for national security reasons, they feel the extraordinary step of suspending the property rights of Americans to invest their money where they see fit, needs to be suspended in any way.
Steve Poizner doesn’t like that some insurance companies have some investments with companies that do some business in Iran. I don’t like it either — those companies ought to make new choices. Poizner should do two things — he should ask (and probably NOT on Department of Insurance letterhead) companies to change their investments, and he can write his Congressman and Senator, like the rest of us.
In the meantime, I find myself cheering on these insurance companies for putting their foot down. If this Insurance Commissioner can come after them for investments he doesn’t like, who’s to say what the next Insurance Commissioner will like or not like?
I’m not knocking Poizner’s intentions, here. But I do insist that our elected officials, especially our Republicans, run any and all policy proposals through an important filter — is what I want to do an appropriate action for the office in which I sit? In this case, I believe the answer is no.
Enough said.