DeWine’s Willy Wonka Lottery is Fool’s Gold

One of my favorite movies growing up was the iconic “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” where the eccentric candymaker places “golden tickets” in candy bars to increase his candy bar sales.

In an insane case of life imitating art, Governor Mike DeWine has decided to play Willy Wonka and hand out five golden tickets to Ohioans who get the COVID-19 vaccine.  Just like Willy Wonka, Governor DeWine is guilty of a sick marketing gimmick, and, in this case, it is under the guise of “doing the right thing,” by using federal dollars meant for COVID-19 relief.

Why is it every time the federal government sends states bailout money, those states pretend the money came from a money tree and not from we the taxpayers?

Meanwhile, Ohio is still not fully open, yet we have a vaccine lottery running to bribe citizens with our own money to get a shot.  Ohioans don’t want handouts — we want FREEDOM, we want government officials who don’t waste our hard-earned tax dollars, and, most importantly, hard working Ohioans are desperate have the opportunity to get back to work.

Let’s just call a spade a spade: this is a waste of money.  And combating squishy establishment Republicans who are wasting our money is not new to me.

I stood up to Governor Kasich’s Medicaid expansion plan under ObamaCare. I fought his proposed tax hike. When the Columbus power brokers tried to broker wasteful budget deals in the back rooms, I published the state’s checkbook online so taxpayers could see how our tax money was being spent.  I am proud to be the worst nightmare to big spenders and the good ole boys in both parties.

Now, as Governor DeWine prepares to waste $5 million on the Vaccine lottery, WE THE PEOPLE should demand a fully transparent accounting of all COVID-19 related spending by DeWine including the use of federal funds that were sent to Ohio.  If $5 million is being flushed down the pipes of Mike “Willy Wonka” DeWine’s money printing factory, how much more was wasted along the way in the name of “public health”?

Republicans and Democrats alike don’t want you to see what’s happening in Columbus or Washington. When it comes to spending, there’s not a dime’s difference between the two sides.  The pandemic provided them with an excuse to spend with little oversight, now we must do what I did as State Treasurer: shine sunlight and hold their feet to the fire.

Taxpayers will pay the price for these insane, foolish, wasteful spending gimmicks. So, Governor DeWine will have his Willy Wonka moment. What’s the point of having a candy factory if he can’t hand out free candy to the masses? But something tells me taxpayers would rather keep their money in the first place and know how the government is spending it instead of having it used as chocolate syrup to sweeten the governor’s rotten vaccine recipe.

Josh Mandel