Wal-Mart Defeated By Maryland

After considerable debate, an overwhelming majority of Maryland legislators voted Thursday to require Wal-Mart to spend at least 8 percent of its payroll budget on employee healthcare expenses. This vote came after a veto by Governor Robert Ehrlich, a Republican.

As a patriotic American, I can't begin to describe the excitement that moves through me after reading about the defeat Wal-Mart suffered the other day in Maryland. As anyone who pays attention can see, Wal-Mart depends in large part on local governments to pay for the healthcare of its employees. An increasing number of Americans these days find themselves asking why it is that Wal-Mart competitors such as Albertsons and Target can offer affordable insurance options while Wal-Mart, which is much larger, does not. The reason for this is because Wal-Mart receives unfair healthcare subsidies from local governments while its competitors do not. In effect, the taxpayers are paying Wal-Mart twice for everything they buy at Wal-Mart: First in the store and Second with their tax dollars. That clearly goes against everything America claims to stand for.

Wal-Mart's favorite tools are bullying, deceit, illegal underselling of competitors and propaganda. Naturally then, Wal-Mart's response to Maryland's new law is to try and bully the state into not executing it. After the bill passed, company spokeswoman Sarah Clark said Wal-Mart will have to "pause to sit back and look at the situation" before continuing with plans to build a new distribution center in Maryland. Isn't it funny how when the government tells Wal-Mart that it will no longer receive unfair subsidies, the company threatens to pull jobs?

Making matters more slippery with corporate slime, Wal-Mart is trying to rhetorically wiggle out of the wrongdoing limelight. Mia Masten, Wal-Mart's Director of Corporate Affairs, says Wal-Mart believes "everyone should have access to affordable health insurance" but adds "this legislation does nothing to accomplish that." Well, Mia, how does Wal-Mart's refusal to offer affordable insurance to most of its 1.3 million employees help "accomplish" that?

In addition to trying to wiggle Wal-Mart out of all responsibility, Masten blames Maryland's new law on "partisan politics" and says it is an attempt to fix Medicaid in one state by penalizing one company. Like most of what Wal-Mart says, that simply isn't true. What Maryland is trying to do is end Wal-Mart's unfair healthcare subsidy and hold the company at least partially responsible for its employees. Is that wrong? Evidently many Republicans think so. After all, many if not most Republicans in Maryland's House and Senate voted against holding Wal-Mart responsible and in favor of continuing to give it unfair healthcare subsidies. Maryland's Governor, a Republican, vetoed the bill the first time it was passed. It's easy to see whose side the GOP is on in Maryland, that's for sure.

Maryland is the only state so far to force Wal-Mart to compete fairly without healthcare subsidies but it's not the only state fighting Wal-Mart's corrupt system of profiteering. Colorado, Connecticut and Washington are all working on legislation similar to that which passed in Maryland. Twenty-five other states are also considering legislation to limit unfair healthcare subsidies given to Wal-Mart. In California, a jury recently awarded Wal-Mart employees $172 million for being illegally denied their lunch breaks. In a similar case in Colorado, Wal-Mart recently settled for $50 million. In Oklahoma, former Wal-Mart employees have filed a lawsuit against the company for deliberately refusing to rehire them on the basis that they left work after filing Worker's Compensation claims against the company. In Pennsylvania, a judge approved a lawsuit against Wal-Mart by employees who said the company tried to force them into working off the clock.

As you can see, Wal-Mart isn't a retailer but a government subsidy program. I'm including a link to Wal-Mart Watch.com and will add other pertinent links in future as I come across them. Fighting the corruption of Corporate America is an important step in protecting the American way of life. Wal-Mart is only one battle in this war but it is a very important one that the American people must win. I urge everyone who reads this to join the fight and boycott Wal-Mart. Remember that this war is just as important as the War On Terror. Good Day and God Bless!