Thursday, February 23, 2006
Uh oh
Ignorant Poltician alert!
Carole Migden is angry at Wal-Mart for taking advantage of the safety net that the legislature put out.
By far, the most egregious cases are those where California's largest and most profitable corporations are not providing health coverage to their employees, instead shifting the burden to our financially strapped state safety net — while stockholders pocket the savings.
It's interesting, but not surprising, the way this blame is pointed. The government puts out a safety net. A corporation decides to use it. That's what happens when you offer free stuff. Yet instead of blasting the legislature's incompetence for putting these services out there when they didn't want them used, Migden bitches about Wal-Mart doing exactly what anyone should do in the situation.
Now, to solve the problem, she isn't going to make it so that Wal-Mart can't use the safety net. She's going to make it so that Wal-Mart has to pay for its own. That is, instead of offering free stuff and saying "Hey, you can't use it," she wants to offer free stuff, and then say "Hey, you have to offer the same free stuff, or we'll come with guns and seize your property and throw you in jail." Way to govern like an adult.
Sadly, people eat this stuff up. They're impressed that Migden is "standing up" to the big bad corporation, rather than having the balls to deal with the people who are to blame.
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