"For several decades, “welfare queens” like Walmart and other large retail operators have been cheating the American taxpayer on the way to amassing record corporate profits by forcing us to foot the bill for the health and nutrition of their indefensibly underpaid employees. Surely making Sam Walton turn in his grave, his heirs pay Walmart employees such measly wages that they are forced to turn to government subsidized benefits like Medicaid, food stamp programs, and subsidized housing in order to keep themselves and their families from starving or dying due to lack of healthcare. Walmart doesn’t seem to care, and as long as they can continue to cut cost and increase profits, their capitalist concerns do not take into account the fact that the American people are subsidizing the wages of their employees. Luckily, Americans all around the nation are beginning to learn about Walmart’s incessant demand for corporate welfare, and now the state of California has made it loud and clear that Walmart and other large retailers have to start taking responsibility for their own employees, even if it means a reduction to their bloated margins. Supported by unions, physicians, and consumer groups, a very progressive piece of legislation is now making its way to the California legislature. The proposed regulation would fine employers like Walmart up to $6000 for every full-time employee that registers for California’s version of Medicaid, Medi-Cal. Why $6000? Well, a report released last week by the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce, estimated that the cost of Walmart’s refusal to provide a living wage for their employees costs the American taxpayer about $5,815 per employee for each year of employment. Accurate and timely data on Wal-Mart’s wage and employment practices is not always readily available. However, occasional releases of demographic data from public assistance programs can provide useful windows into the scope of taxpayer subsidization of Wal-Mart. After analyzing data released by Wisconsin’s Medicaid program, the Democratic staff of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce estimates that a single 300- person Wal-Mart Supercenter store in Wisconsin likely costs taxpayers at least $904,542 per year and could cost taxpayers up to $1,744,590 per year – about $5,815 per employee. Says Sonya Schwartz, program director at the National Academy for State Academy for State Health Policy, “There are concerns that employers will be gaming this new system and taking less and less responsibility for their workers. This may make employers think twice.” Predictably, the California Retailers Association, of which Walmart is a board member company, voiced their displeasure with the legislation. It’s one of the worst job-killer bills I’ve seen in my 20 years in Sacramento, and that says a lot. The unions are fixated on Wal-Mart, but that’s not the issue here. It’s a monster project to implement the Affordable Care Act, and having this thrown on top is not helpful. This type of cynical job “hostage-taking” is the usual route followed by corporations when the American people and the government attempt to scale back America’s indefensible levels of unnecessary corporate welfare. Are we supposed to believe that if the state of California stops allowing Walmart to subsidize their profits through the American taxpayer, that they would pack up and relocate to Somalia? That they would base their hiring decisions off whether or not their employees qualify for public assistance? Nearly every single major economist agrees that corporations base their hiring decisions solely on demand, so my guess is that they would throw a small fit and return to business as usual, only with slightly lower margins. Like a true corporate mouthpiece, Mr. Dombrowski didn’t even address the reasoning and problem driving this piece of legislation: the fact that American taxpayer money is not going to educate our children nor build our roads and highways, but to line the pockets of the greedy Walton heirs. Of course, you can expect the right-wing echo chamber to pounce on this story as an example of big bad government regulation. What they will fail to acknowledge is that this piece of legislation actually encourages employers to take responsibility for the welfare of their own employees, getting the American taxpayer off the hook. Isn’t that what the free market rugged individualism they purport to follow is all about? It is absolutely incredible that conservatives do not see their hypocrisy in advocating a status quo that encourages large multinational corporations to pay their employees as little as possible so that they would be more likely to qualify for government benefits, all the while espousing Ayn Rand’s utopian values of rugged individualism and free-market sanctity. The fact that the Tea Party continues to deride those that work hard, but still require government welfare to stay afloat, while championing greedy corporations that are raking in record profits while swimming in corporate welfare, shows that they are taking their marching orders from Kock & Co. rather than We The People. This very progressive piece of proposed legislation in California has a very good chance of becoming law, as its passing will require a two thirds vote in both the Senate and Assembly, both of which are controlled by a Democratic supermajority. Please do your part in ensuring this legislations passage and others like it by sharing this and other related articles on social media forums. Once California gets the ball rolling, we can continue on a state-by-state basis until Walmart and other large retailers hear our message and start paying their employees a livable wage rather than forcing the American taxpayer to foot the bill. Watch a video report of Wal-Mart’s “welfare queen” taxpayer subsidies here"
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 01:06:52 +0000
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