Jesse James Would Have Been Proud of the Maryland Legislature
By Randall Nunn (01/16/06)
Last week the Maryland legislature overrode a veto by the governor and passed a law requiring any company with more than 10,000 employees in the state to spend at least 8% of payroll on health insurance or pay the difference into the state Medicaid fund to help pay for health care for low income Marylanders. The only company in the state with more than 10,000 employees is Wal-Mart. Apparently the Maryland legislature feels that legislative robbery is acceptable if the victim—in this case Wal-Mart—is large, successful and under fire from the mainstream media. When Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor, he had to worry about the Sheriff of Nottingham and the royal government’s archers. The Maryland legislature has turned this around so that now the Sheriff of Nottingham is the one taking from the rich to give to the bloated imperial government. Government power is being used to take the money from the out-of-favor group and give it to others who are in-favor at the moment. For the sheer arrogance and brazenness of their actions, the Maryland legislature deserves an award.
Maryland’s legislators targeted one company that is currently profitable as the victim from whom they would expropriate funds, but avoided naming the company on the pretext of passing a law that applied to companies of a certain size. The Maryland legislature is not only a merry band of brigands but also a cowardly one. Why not simply raise taxes and use the revenue to pay for this health care program? The answer is that many of the legislators voting to raise taxes would be voted out of office. It is much easier to take the money from a faceless corporation that has it and use it for their purposes, while telling their constituents how wonderful they are to provide a benefit to low-income constituents. If the legislature can do this to Wal-Mart, they can do it to anyone. All they need is creative draftsmanship to describe the intended victims to be fleeced in terms that disguise their identity to the casual observer.
The actions of the Maryland legislature will undoubtedly be challenged in court by Wal-Mart. The law will, in all likelihood, be struck down by the courts at the end of the process. This legislation represents a transparent seizure of the property of Wal-Mart without due process of law. Passage of this law was a display of raw power by the Democrat majority and the labor unions who were heavy backers of the law. One wonders how the legislators will justify applying the law only to companies with more than 10,000 employees. What is the rationale for imposing a tax such as this only on one company in the entire state? Does the state have evidence that it underwrites a higher percentage of the health care costs of Wal-Mart’s employees than employees of other companies in Maryland? Almost certainly it does not. If that turns out to be the case, how do these legislators justify this arbitrary and confiscatory legislation?
What of the 17,000 employees of Wal-Mart in the state? Do the Maryland legislators think that Wal-Mart’s employees will be insulated from the effects of this legislation? Do they think that such costs are not passed on to consumers and employees, at least in part? When the Maryland legislature saddles Wal-Mart with an onerous tax that strikes only at it, it also strikes at all the people Wal-Mart provides jobs to in the state and those who shop at Wal-Marts in the state. Apparently the Maryland legislators care little about the consumers who appreciate Wal-Mart’s low prices or those employed by Wal-Mart. These legislators are far more eager to please the labor unions who provide major financial support. Money and other forms of support from the labor bosses are more important than the average voter who works or shops at Wal-Mart.
The antidote to the arrogance of the Maryland legislature is voter turnout in the next election. I am betting that there are more people who work and shop at Wal-Marts in the state than there are union bosses and union members who vote the way the union bosses want. If the citizens of the state who work and patronize Wal-Marts, and their friends, turn out and vote against those who denied basic fairness and due process to Wal-Mart and its employees and customers, the legislators can, and should, be turned out of office. If the legislators get away with holding up Wal-Mart in broad daylight, they can apply the same tactics to any other companies or individuals in the future, whenever their insatiable appetite for other people’s money to spend overcomes their fear of the voters.
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