Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Big Business: A few months ago, Maryland passed a law requiring every company with more than 10,000 employees to provide health insurance to all its workers. What was special about this bill is that only one company in the entire state fit the description -- Wal-Mart.

One of the Left's favorite targets was helpless to do anything. The Republican governor tried to veto the bill, but the Democratic-controlled legislature overruled that veto. This looked like a case of a bunch of little guys putting a submission hold on a big guy.

Now running to the defense of the retail behemoth are a bunch of small businesses. The National Federation of Independent Business is lending its support to a federal court challenge to the constitutionality of the bill. Their concern, that one day government will be targeting them to provide similar services, regardless of whether they can afford to do so. Once a precedent is set, it's hard to go backwards.

We have a major problem in this country in that so many people are not covered by health insurance, and that the health insurance companies themselves are often a joke. Maybe there is some way for government to either provide the health coverage itself, or to regulate how businesses do so. But the action by this group of small businesses shows there are legitimate concerns about whether government is trying to do too much.