I take the simple position that WM is allowing the government to provide health care benefits.The irony here is that I'm opposing a company requiring employees to go on Medicaid. You are taking the exact opposite point of view. Apparently, you people believe all companies ought to require workers to get their health care from the government. And then you allege that I'm a liberal?
That is an example of a bunch liberal kettles is calling the one conservative pot black!
The irony here is that I'm opposing a company requiring employees to go on Medicaid.
WM does not nor could they REQUIRE their employees go on Medicaid.
By stating that WalMart "passes it's health care cost off to the federal government" you disingenuously misframe the debate. WalMart has no obligation, moral nor legal, to provide anyone with health insurance. No business has any obligation to provide health insurance to anyone whatsoever. That some choose to provide such fringe benefits in order to recruit and retain employees is entirely their own business decision to make.
Since WalMart has no obligation to provide health insurance to its employees, the fact that it does/doesn't, how much it does/doesn't, or to whom it does/doesn't is completely beside the point. That the government chooses to pay for some peoples' health care based on criteria written into the law, and that some of those people may work for WalMart while some others may work for the Mom and Pop business down the street, is completely superfluous to the argument, since neither Walmart nor the Mom and Pop is obligated to provide insurance.
This is still a market economy where businesses are free to offer benefits or not. If you've got an issue with the government paying for WalMart employees' health care, take up your beef with the government, where it rightly belongs.