A Republican Congressman from Ohio says if you don’t receive the COVID-19 vaccine – you don’t deserve the next $1,400 stimulus payment.

Representative Steve Stivers told Yahoo Finance Live he thinks the $1,400 stimulus should not be distributed without the vaccine stipulation.  That $1,400 per person stimulus – when coupled with the $600 payments approved back in December (2020), would bring the total to $2,000 – which was the amount being sought by both Democrats and former President Donald Trump.  Stivers said the $2 trillion price tag for the entire stimulus package would be worth it if it pays for “the right things.”

“The quickest thing we need to do, if we really want to help the American people, is get this economy turned back on, get people back to work, get kids back in school and get ourselves some herd immunity, get the vaccine distributed as quick as we can and get the uptake rate up,”; Stivers’ suggestion isn’t the first time that the “pay for vaccine” idea has come up, with Democratic U.S. Representative John Delaney of Maryland saying late last year payments of, he suggested, $1,500 – would be an “incentive” for people to receive the vaccine.

Delaney said “The faster we get 75% of this country vaccinated – the faster we end COVID –and the sooner everything returns to normal,” adding “We have to create – in my judgment, an incentive for people to really accelerate their thinking about taking the vaccine.”

(AL.COM/www.al.com)