Maryland moves one step closer to being a socialist (communist) state. The legislature overrode the governor's veto of the "Fair Share Health Care Act", locally known as the "Wal Mart Act".

The act requires employers to spend at least eight percent of their payroll on health insurance. It's called the "Wal Mart Act" because Wal Mart is the one and only employer in the state affected by the act. Sort of a "gotcha" from Democrats who hate others' success.

I'm not a Wal Mart fan by any stretch. I used to hold my nose and go in because John Walton was Special Forces and ran recon with SOG and by all accounts was a genuine hero, though he apparently never had much to say about it himself.

Unfortunately, John is gone now, having crashed in an ultralight, so I have little motivation to navigate the crowded, stinky aisles of a store patronized by 300 pound women wearing stretch pants and dodging motorized carts navigated by obese people being kept alive by cannulas.

Getting that out of the way, I think I've established that I'm not an apologist for Wal Mart. But the act is purely socialist. An employer offers a potential employee a compensation package. That package includes wages, paid time off, insurance and possibly pension. If you don't care for the package, you move on to another employer. Employers, in turn, make themselves attractive to qualified candidates by offering attractive compensation packages.

I haven't the foggiest idea what makes the state legislators think they have any business inserting themselves into the compensation packages of private corporations. On the other hand, check the compensation packages that legislators vote for themselves. I think you'll be shocked.