We Know Andrew Yang's Debate Surprise and It's Pretty Lame

Democratic hopeful and tie opponent Andrew Yang will announce a pilot program of his universal basic income plan during his opening statement at the Democratic debate in Houston on Thursday night. According to Politico, the campaign will select 10 families from an online raffle to promote Yang’s central campaign promise, The Freedom Dividend.

The selected families will give $120,000 to the family over the next year. Sadly, Yang isn’t going to be reading the names of people on air, which would be incredible.

Something that isn’t lame is that this is expanding a pilot program that Yang is funding out of his own money for three families. The program will continue even if Yang isn’t the Democratic nominee. Real Clear Politics aggregate of all polling has Yang trailing Joe Biden, Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Unless Yang wants to announce he’s paying off my credit card debt, in which case, it’s not that lame as far as debate stunts go.