Posted on 01/18/2006 10:18:18 AM PST by Graybeard58
If politicians owned companies and ran them the way they run their governments, they'd be out of business in short order. Reckless and impulsive, they are famous for spending wastefully, charging too much for what they deliver and maxing out their credit lines, and then having the gall to dictate repeatedly how private businesses should be run.
Overriding a gubernatorial veto, Maryland lawmakers last week passed the Fair Share Health Care law, which orders companies with 10,000 or more workers to spend 8 percent of their payrolls on employee health benefits or put equivalent sums in the state Med-icaid fund.
This law is an unsubtle shot at Wal-Mart, the bane of unions and others who believe profits are evil health-care insurance is an entitlement. Among their allies is WakeUpWalMart.com, which is dedicated to "changing the way Wal-Mart" does business by substituting failed socialism for spectacularly successful capitalism.
Wal-Mart won't abandon Maryland over this, but it certainly will be less eager to expand there, and it will have to restructure its work force and rework its employment practices. Layoffs, hiring and wage freezes, and job losses for lower-income workers will be among the consequences. Price increases also are possible.
The law also will hamper economic development by sending a message to large employers that labor-loving legislators are gunning for them. This law is bad for business, but worse for low-wage workers.
All this is relevant to Connecticut because it will be one of the 30 states where Fair Share will be introduced this year.
Recall last year how our socialist legislature failed to approve an anti-jobs bill that would have taxed employers of 20 or more if their health benefits were not as generous as those of state employees. A bill more specifically targeting Wal-Mart would have a better of passage chance in a state renowned for its anti-business attitude.
Fair Share is the first step toward forcing businesses to bestow costly public-employee-style benefits on all their workers. Once enacted, the law can be amended to capture smaller companies, dictate coverage throughout the private sector and increase the amounts companies must spend on insurance.
Politicians may be horrendous fiscal administrators, but they are skilled incrementalists.
America is overdue for a sane, comprehensive discussion of health-care reform. Fair Share only makes a bad situation worse and hurts the very people it is supposed to help.
This isn't China or India, I'd like to keep it that way. I'd rather see them rise to our level than us lowering our selves to their level.
How do you figure?
YOU earn your money. Money you spend for your housing and health can be deductible from your total taxable rate.
Your money does not belong to the government to allocate back to you and your neighbors as legislators "see fit".
No business should be required to give any kind of benefit. A benefit is, by definition, an extra that is above the standard.
Benefits are bestowed by companies in order to retain valued employees. If a company wishes not to use "benefits" and chooses other ways to retain employees or if it even chooses not to use benefits at all, then all we are witnessing are different ways of running a business.
Similar to tipping a waiter/waitress, the whole point is lost if government begins to require businesses to spend in this or that area.
Why not require the business to pay double for its raw materials? A government could require that. Why don't they?
Likewise, there is no earthly, logical reason that says the workplace is where one should acquire health benefits.
Sure, easy.
Cut take home pay across the board by 8% and then use it to pay this stupid tax.
30 states are currently considering similar laws.
This ain't rocket science.... it's just business...
Sure...They don't have regulations in China...Is that your cure??? If only we would work for pennies on the hour and be willing to dump our sewage and chemicals into the lakes and rivers, then you pro business, anti people types wouldn't have a reason to move to China...
Sorry, that may your American dream but it's not mine...I'm willing to pay what it costs to be an American...
I hate taxes as much as anyone, and would like to keep all that I earn, but the reality is that one mans pork is another mans job creation, health care or education for the poor, security for the needy, infrastructure for a state, city or town, on and on.
We will, soon. Well, your not Canadian are you. Thanks for helping me make my point.
The Wal Mart family makes billions...Their upper echelon managers make scores of millions of bucks...
But they (and you) have decided I should pay more in taxes to insure THEIR employees and pay for the food stamps THEIR employees require to feed their kids in order that the Wal Mart owners can become even more wealthy...
And the Wal Mart 'family' has already destroyed thousands upon thousands of American jobs to be able to wallow in as much money as they possibly can...
Yep, and the corporations are winning the whose going to foot the bill game hands down over the taxpayer.
Forced redistribution of wealth is not taxing for services, it is communism.
The Wal Mart family makes billions...Their upper echelon managers make scores of millions of bucks...
So what?
More power to them.
But they (and you) have decided I should pay more in taxes to insure THEIR employees and pay for the food stamps
Would you pay less in taxes or more if Wal-Mart didn't employ them at all?
Your arguments are the same as every socialist Wal-Mart basher who comes along.
That's one of the most absurd statements that I've ever seen on FR. Who do you think funds MediCal in California or TennCare in Tennessee and any number of other state programs whose names I don't know?
Former socialist "typos" is history.
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