"Unless just possibly there is something to the charge that Walmart systematically underpays its lower-paid workers and provides such abysmal health care that it has to be forced to do what it should already be doing."

   Since when is it big business' responsibility to provide any type of health coverage to it's employees? I thought that this is why businesses offered benefits to their employees so that they could get employees that are more loyal and would work harder at doing a good job.

   The reason that they're called "benefits" is because they are normally not expected. It's something extra.

    What the state of Maryland is doing is nothing short of extortion and if it passes then it will do nothing but cause people to lose jobs. Let's hope that Md.'s gov. will have the sense enough to veto that piece of crap legislation.

    For the many clueless ones out there, just think a little harder about how something can affect something else and I guarantee you will change your way of thinking.