I’m not a huge fan of Wal-Mart, but I’m even less a fan of big government. And the state of Maryland has just taken another step down the slippery slope of socialism with its decision to require that Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart alone spend more money on employee health care.

As Michelle Malkin writes: “It’s on in Maryland, and the socialists are winning.”

You can read all about the state’s decision here. The Democrat-controlled House and Senate in Maryland were apparently able to muster enough support to override Gov. Robert Ehrlich’s veto of the bill.

The situation essentially boils down to this: a privately owned company is being punished by a state government for being too successful. Where does the Maryland legislature get the authority to impose these requirements on a privately owned and privately run company? Last time I checked, people aren’t forced into working at a place like Wal-Mart. If they do happen to work at Wal-Mart and don’t like the conditions, benefits, wages, or bosses, they have the option of quitting and getting a different job. That doesn’t seem so hard to understand, but apparently the folks up in Maryland have decided Wal-Mart’s evil, despicable actions require government intervention. If the government is able to dictate how much Wal-Mart—a privately owned company—has to spend on employee health care, what prevents the government from ordering the same thing of every private company or business?

This sounds like something we’d see in communist Russia, not in the good old U.S. of A.

Soccer Dad has some excellent coverage of the issue that is definitely worth checking out.