Well, they actually did it

The State of Maryland fired a shot last week aimed directly at Walmart when the state legislature passed a bill that directs employer's operating in Maryland with more than 10,000 employees to pay a minimum of 8 percent of their payroll on health care.

They did it despite the warnings of many:

The Washington Post: The Maryland bill is a legislative mugging masquerading as an act of benevolent social engineering.

The Baltimore Sun: Attacking real or imagined health care villains, though sometimes necessary and always fun, will not make health care more affordable today or tomorrow unless we also face hard facts and reform our system. It is broken and our leaders know it, but courage to talk about real solutions is scarce, so most stick to diversionary tactics.

The Examiner: It would also make Maryland the first state in the nation to impose government-mandated health benefits, a shakedown masquerading as concern for the poor. If legislators really want to help those at the bottom end of the economic ladder, they won’t destroy the first rung up: a job.

While the legislature insists that it didn’t specifically ‘target’ Walmart, it seems fairly clear that, in fact, they did: Lawmakers said they did not set out to single out Wal-Mart when they drafted a bill requiring organizations with more than 10,000 employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health benefits -- or put the money directly into the state's health program for the poor.

But as debate raged in the Senate yesterday, it was clear that the giant retailer, which has 15,000 workers in Maryland, was the only company that would be affected.

State Senator EJ Pipkin’s analysis is spot on: "This is crossing a bridge,"[…] "Annapolis is telling private business in the private marketplace what to do."

All of which begs the question, what will the state of Maryland do when Walmart, now faced with this new restriction, runs head-long into the immutable laws of Economics and begins shedding jobs or otherwise curtailing their business in the state?