No Florida Insurance Bailout

It seems that the state of Florida has overpromised insurance coverage to its citizens in the case of a catastrophic storm, and now is coming to Congress for a bailout, lest a major storm bankrupt the state. Naturally, we had something to say about this in a press release today. The director of CEI’s Florida office, Christian Cámara:

Reliance on a Federal bailout as official state policy is reckless at best. Instead of lobbying Washington politicians for money, Commissioner [Kevin] McCarty and Governor Charlie Crist should return to Tallahassee and work together with the legislature to restore a healthy, competitive insurance environment to ensure that Florida is able to weather the aftermath of a storm. Taxpayers should not be forced to bailout neither Florida nor the politicians that have placed the state one storm away from economic meltdown.

Wise words if I do say so myself. Chief insurance guru and Senior Fellow Eli Lehrer also chimed in:

This is a really, really bad idea. We’ve already done far too many bailouts of private companies. State governments – particularly ones that make bad decisions – don’t need bailouts as well. Congress should say “No” to Kevin McCarty.

Here’s to hoping there’s at least one bailout that fails to get funding this session.

Tagged as: Crist, finance, Florida, hurricane, Insurance, municipal bonds, tropical storm.Kevin McCarty