California Governor Gavin Newsom announced “incentives” for residents to get the COVID vaccine, including a chance to win a part of a $15 million lottery.
“This last week, those first doses are way down,” said Newsom, pointing to the June 15 goal “north of 70% of all eligible Californians” vaccinated.
“If you’re 12 years old or over, you can receive a $50 incentive card for Kroger’s Albertsons or, if you choose, Bank of America,” he continued. “It’s a digital card…and after the second dose, or your first dose of J&J, you’ll receive your money.”
“June 4th and June 11 State of California will be conducting a drawing. You’re all eligible [including those vaccinated between now and then]. We will be pulling the names of 15 individuals that will [each] receive $15k” on each date, said Newsom. On June 15, there will be another lottery with another 10 winners. “We will be distributing $15 million,” said the governor, equally among those 10 individuals.
“You don’t have to register,” said Newsom, noting that everyone vaccinated is gives their name and contact information. “We keep your name confidential,” he assured.
“Then we have more ideas coming after June 15, but we want to see how we do with this before June 15,” said the governor.
Ohio has also offered to enter the newly vaccinated into a $1 million lottery, nicknamed the “Vax-a-Million.”
More than 2.7 million people registered to win the vaccine lottery in Ohio. The state also offered the vaccinated a chance to enter sweepstakes for full college scholarships, and more than 104,000 people entered. Vaccination rates doubled in some Ohio counties after the vaccine lottery was announced, the state said.
USA Today writer Christian Schneider contradicted the bribery project: “at some point, the government is simply rewarding irresponsible behavior. It reinforces the message to people around the country that if you want to make bad choices, eventually the government will swoop in to bail you out.”
Just like the bank and GM bailouts, cash for clunkers, the COVID cash being used for pensions and broke city or state municipalities, the Ohio’s lottery idea is being paid for with federal taxpayer money.
Schneider offers a very conservative analysis: “The lesson, of course, is that the American people will always be there to bail you out for the consequences of your own decisions. Don’t want to pay back student loans you willingly took out to improve your life? Here come the progressives, promising to ‘cancel’ your debt. Don’t want to go back to work post-pandemic? The spigot of generous unemployment benefits from both the federal and individual state governments remains, in many cases, wide open.”
