A Walmart Discount?

While listening to the radio in Cumberland, MD the other day, I heard an ad on the radio that went something like this "....at Walmart, 94% of our associates, including part-time, have some form of health care coverage, but we won't rest until new national legislation is passed which will provide health care to all americans."

The more I thought about this, the more frustrated I became. To the point that I decided to send the following email to Walmart's website:

It is with extreme dissatisfaction I write to express my frustration and anger regarding a recent Walmart commercial I've been hearing on the local radio in Cumberland, MD. While I believe Walmart has generally been a decent and caring company, providing value-based merchandise, and acting as a responsible community neighbor, I am saddened that Walmart has chosen to endorse the recent US national health care legislation. I believe this to be completely contrary to the fundamentals Walmart has portrayed in the past. It smacks of "we'll do anything to make a buck" mentality.
While I can understand the motivations that may drive Walmart to support this type of legislation, like lower employee costs, it will only backfire and cause the very people Walmart serves to loose the economic freedom to patronize your stores. I agree that some changes need to happen with regard to health care in the US, but recent attempts by lawmakers have all shown to be dangerously expensive and potentially devastating to our national wealth, economy, and personal liberty.
Because of Walmart's support of this current legislation, I, my family, and friends will choose other companies to give our patronage to. If and when, Walmart changes its stance on this significat and broad-reaching national issue, we will reconsider shopping at Walmart.

While I don't expect others to follow my lead, it has caused me to think about the need for serious discussion regarding this and other national topics. Now is not the time to rush to solutions for problems that are not well understood. There are unintended consequences with just about every rushed decision; especially political ones! Remember the recent law in Nebraska, the one intended to protect newborn babies from being tossed in dumpsters? It said that any child could be left at a hospital, fire station, police station, or other public building, no questions asked. Sounds great, right? Well, it was until a few teenagers were dropped off; seems the parents couldn't deal with their kid anymore, so they folllowed the new law, and dropped the kid off at the station! The lawmakers were extremely disturbed, stating they never intended for this to be the outcome. But it happened; it really happend! These are smart people, right?

You'd think the legislators would have been a bit more careful writing such a law; think it through perhaps? Many lawmakers are lawyers, and should know better. Can you imagine the unintended consequences of a $1 Trillion health care bill, so large that many legislators have admitted they probably won't read this bill! Why? Things are not so bad with health care in the US, that we need to jump before we look, are they?

Let's take this one slowly. Let's discuss it. Let's argue about it. Let's compromise. Let's figure out how to pay for it. Let's run some trial programs, and work out the kinks before we go full speed ahead, and open our eyes later.