The Let's Get Comfy Podcast
Hosted by Founder and CEO of Comfort Measures Consulting LLC, Norman Harris. The Official Healthcare Edutainment station. Empowering listeners with the knowledge and resources to age comfortably. The podcast platform will uniquely provide laughter, peace, joy, resources and most of all COMFORT. Fostering professional partnerships and engaging the audience by providing them access to a REAL family-like conversation. That gives them the REAL reasons. Connects them to REAL reliable resources. To get REAL results. For REAL Comfort! Through interviews with C-suite healthcare leaders, experts, caregivers, founders, authors, educators, and thought leaders who are doing incredible work for older adults, family caregivers, and the healthcare community.
The Let's Get Comfy Podcast
From Classroom to Campaign: Ben Braver's Fight for Florida's Future
Ever wondered how a former fifth-grade science teacher could shake up Florida's political scene? Meet Ben Braver, our guest on this vibrant episode of Let's Get Comfy. Ben's journey from the classroom to the campaign trail is nothing short of inspiring. His activism at the University of South Florida led to a statewide protest that challenged the controversial demand for student health records. As he runs for the Florida State Senate in District 23, Ben is on a mission to combat inequalities and fight for educational reform, proving that passion and determination can drive real change.
Our conversation takes a deep dive into the economic challenges Floridians face, touching on wealth concentration, housing affordability, and unfair tax structures. We unravel the web of corporate monopolies and policy decisions that exacerbate these issues, all while weaving in some personal insights and hobbies that make the journey relatable. With a love for indie rock, video games like Overwatch, and sports such as hockey, I share a bit of my world, adding a personal layer to our discussion on these critical topics.
As we navigate through the pressing issues of environmental conservation and education reform, we highlight the importance of preserving Florida's natural beauty and improving public schools. Ben shares his vision for expanding Medicaid and enhancing public transportation, especially for seniors and those in underserved areas. By fostering community engagement through initiatives like weekly conversations, we emphasize that meaningful change starts with us. Get ready for an episode packed with thought-provoking discussions and stories that inspire action.
Welcome to another episode of the let's Get Comfy podcast. Home. Love, peace, joy, but most of all comfort. Florida's number one healthcare education station. I'm your host and sole proprietor, norman Harris, and yes, I did it again. Another special guest, this time a Florida State Senator candidate, mr Ben Braver. Welcome to the show, sir. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for blessing the show. I want your presence Such a young individual like yourself, I'm so grateful to have you here. But I want your presence Such a young individual like yourself, I'm so grateful to have you here. But I want the audience, the let's Get Comfy listeners, to know about you and what you do and some of your accomplishments.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I am a teacher in Hillsborough County fifth grade, the best grade I'm a science teacher and I'm running for state senate here in Florida, district 23. Now, the area I'm running for is District 23, and it goes all the way from Brandon all the way up to Dade City and then out east to Plant City. It's a huge area, but what it covers is some of the most beautiful parts of the country, these beautiful pastures, these amazing small towns that we need more investment in. And I just graduated from USF go Bulls.
Speaker 2:While I was there, our governor tried to take the private health records of our students, which is a ridiculous breach of human rights. So what I did was try to get a petition started. We got 2,000 signatures in a day and then we realized that wouldn't be enough because DeSantis would just fire our president if she didn't send in our students' private health records. So we started to walk out and we got 5,000 students and educators to walk out of every single university in Florida on February 23rd 2023. And it was an incredible display of our appreciation for diversity and for our education and saying that we need our education, we need our health care to be private and for us I got an MSNBC and CNN for that, which was just so proud of that, and it was great to shine a light on what was happening in Florida.
Speaker 2:Then I became the Director of State and local policy for the Young Democrats of America and when I got back to Florida and when I became a teacher here I saw how underinvested our students are and how much they're just taking away from the future of our state but not giving our students the opportunity to achieve their full potential. And I knew there was one person who's responsible for that my state senator and it just disgusted me to see him as our representative. It made me sick to see how he was hurting my community and claiming to represent it. So I had to step into the race and ever since I've gotten in I've seen the support of my friends, my family and my community and how much everybody wants to see change, wants to see a better Florida that works for everybody.
Speaker 1:Wow, man, you inspire me already. I mean, how did you take that step just to initiate that at USF, like to initiate that support of those signatures and for it to even spread throughout Florida? What was that like?
Speaker 2:Well, luckily I had been building a base throughout my entire time there. The first year that I was there, caitlin Bennett, who became known as the Kent State gun girl, actually used to live in Ohio my dad, right of the road from Kent State and she went there with like an AK-47 strapped to her back on graduation just a ridiculous display of force for a graduation, just really weird right. But then she went around to college campuses all across the country for years trying to trigger the libs and she went to USF where she got a huge response from people because we didn't want her there just spreading lies about COVID, right, spreading lies about our healthcare. And so I led the rally against her, which really became a starting point for me, like boosted me out into saying like I have a voice and I want to use it and luckily, as a camp counselor it's very loud, so that really helped me.
Speaker 2:And then there are these people who would always go on campus with these disgusting anti-abortion signs, like with fake images meant to trigger people's trauma because it's an invasive procedure. Even though I believe it should be safe, legal and free, it's invasive and it can be traumatic for some people and these fake images were meant to trigger that trauma response and it was disgusting to me. So I'd bring my guitar out there and actually play in front of them and it became a thing on campus. I would hand out condoms and register people to vote and sign them up to volunteer with Planned Parenthood so they could make their voices heard and stand up to this hate. And then I got involved with the College Democrats as well as Planned Parenthood Generation Action. Yes, I saw that and I became well-known as an organizer on campus. So when this thing that DeSantis did stealing our private information happened, I was able to have this large network with my friends across the entire state. It was able to spread very effectively, right, and people cared.
Speaker 2:Yes, they cared about protecting their freedoms.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really good. Yeah, that's good, and you connected with your other network, and having good associates is always very important as well. So, but with you becoming, or starting in the race for, a Florida state senator, what I mean, you sort of went into what sparked it, but how do you go into seeking that level, though, like that's top tier?
Speaker 2:man. Yeah, you see the arbitrary inequality right In a capitalist system, in any market system, there's going to be some inequality and that's fair. That's fine. If people aren't putting in as much work, they shouldn't get as many rewards. But we see when the poorest people in Florida, the bottom 20%, are paying 13% of their income as taxes and the richest 1% is only paying 3% of their income in taxes. That's government mandated inequality. That's pushing the poorest people down and giving that money to the richest and I just couldn't abide by that.
Speaker 2:Now, the one open seat in Florida when I looked was the state Senate seat that I was in, and if I didn't run for this then we wouldn't get every single legislative race contested. Right now every single legislative seat is contested. If I didn't get into this race it wouldn't be. And I looked through Senator Danny Burgess' record and while he's an affable guy, when if you meet him you like him, his policy hurts the people and I just couldn't stand that. And yes, state senator is a high role. But it is clear there is policy that hurts people and there's policy that helps people, right right.
Speaker 2:Danny Burgess sponsored a bill to not let our local communities regulate how much our water is being polluted. That is a policy that hurts people. I stand against that. I mean, this is Zephyrhills. The most famous part of this community, is our water right Zephyrhills Water Company, but he's selling out the people of Zephyrhills for that corporation, and so there's just so many instances of that kind of policy where it sells out the people to these monopolies, and I stand against that at every single turn. And there are great think tanks and great organizations across Florida that propose fantastic legislation that you can tap into that I'll be working with in order to help the people rather than hurt us.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful stand that you're taking. Wonderful stand that you're taking so we have to acknowledge right because others are gonna state this as well is how young you look and you speak to just your age, and how that's not an issue at all and why people shouldn't question your abilities and your passion.
Speaker 2:One of the great things that I found is that I haven't found anybody questioning it, and it speaks to a larger problem in our entire political sphere. I mean the reason President Biden stepped down was because people saw him as too old to serve Right. And yeah, you can see it. At the debate I was leading a, I had a watch party and some of the most sycophantic Biden supporters ever right, we're within 100%. When they saw him, I mean our souls left, our body, right we.
Speaker 2:When we took that first pause, we saw this just isn't the person we weren't running. In fact, nine out of 10 Americans said that. And then the democratic party listened to the people. Joe Biden listened to us and said I understand that you don't want me to be the nominee, and now we have a fantastic nominee in Vice President Harris and Governor Tim Walz. And when I talk to people, they say we want younger representation because so many of the people in the political scene are so old and especially with the rate of technological advancement with AI just in the past two years, we aren't living in the same world that we did just 20 years ago Just 20 years ago.
Speaker 1:yeah, and so if you didn't grow up five years ago?
Speaker 2:so if you didn't grow up with that, it's very hard to understand the problems that people are facing today. Right, right, and so we need younger representation and we should have representation for all people. Diversity matters. What experience you lived in matters to what policy you're going to support and what problems you even understand. Yes, so we need representation for younger people, for people who will live in the world this policy will affect. You're right, and people see that, they understand that and they care about supporting younger people.
Speaker 1:Okay, so at USF, right, what are some of the clubs or associations were you involved in?
Speaker 2:I was involved with Planned Parenthood, generation Action, which was a great group, and one of our main points was to educate on safe sex right and to educate on a lot of the areas that Florida is just failing in. For instance, they created. It used to be that you could opt out of sexual education, which is fair. If you're a parent who wants to teach your kids yourself or doesn't want your kids in that class, you should have the freedom to opt out of it. But now our state Senate made it an opt-in program, which means, by default, kids don't get the education on how to be safe in their life. We know that abstinence only doesn't work because when you make something taboo, kids want to do it more. Right. When you don't let kids understand the dangers, they don't know the dangers right? That's why, at USF, when the preachers would come in and just say that abortion was wrong and that you shouldn't have any sex, that's a bad way. If you want to prevent abortions, the best thing to do is to hand out condoms. That's the single most effective way to make sure people aren't getting pregnant. To hand out contraceptives. But what they're doing right now in our legislature is removing access to contraceptives and they're not just forcing women to remain pregnant, but forcing women to get pregnant like that. So I was involved with them. We were teaching people how to have safe sex.
Speaker 2:I was also involved with College Democrats, a great group that was restoring civil conversation on campus. We actually had a great debate with the college Republicans and the people there. We learned from each other. We understood that we're not enemies. We just have different views on how to achieve safety, how to achieve prosperity for all people. I was involved with the Jewish organization Hillel, which was great, and a bunch of other just groups on campus chess club and it was great to meet a ton of different people and while I care about politics a lot, I was able to bring it into every different sphere and show people how, even if you just care about chess club, it's still important to support the policy that matters to everybody. Because when DeSantis put in bills like HB 999, it restricted the freedoms of those clubs who had nothing to do with politics from speaking out and speaking their views and it's just ridiculous and it restricted them from having diverse thought in their clubs, which we need for every club.
Speaker 1:So just me researching you more and learning more about you. If you could explain to our viewers what is pro-choice, pro-free market, pro-florida.
Speaker 2:What does that mean to you? Yeah, so pro-choice means that you should have bodily autonomy. I mean, it's what our country was founded on the idea that nobody else has a say over what you do with your body, right. And when it comes to abortion access, it is one of the best things for this state. When you give people the freedom to choose what they want to do with their lives, you get a more free floor to get a freer market. If we had pro-choice legislation, if we didn't have a six week abortion ban in this state right now, we would have 33,000 more people enter our labor force and, on average, our women would get $1,000 more a year to their jobs. Right now we have the Hyde Amendment in the nation, which means that the state, the national government, can't put any money towards an abortion, which is crazy, because that's reproductive healthcare, one of the worst effects of the abortion ban, because a six week abortion ban basically is a total abortion ban. It goes by the last time you have a period, which means if you had a period four weeks ago, right, and then had sex on the last day before the period, then you could have only been pregnant for two weeks, right, but you would still be covered under the six-week abortion ban. Now, pro-free market.
Speaker 2:I'm majoring in economics. I'm a huge economic nerd. It's what really got me involved in politics, because I can see that the inequality that we have is arbitrary. There are six people in this country Larry Ellison, bernard Arnault, jeff Bezos, elon Musk, mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates who control $88 billion more than the bottom half of all Americans combined. That is disgusting. The money is out there. It's just kept in six people's hands, and so when you see people, when you see one fifth of all American children unable to afford food right, not knowing where their next meal would come from and we see that money is there you have to get out and speak, because that is stealing from the people.
Speaker 2:We see monopolies coming into Florida and our legislature letting them steal from us. There's an affordability crisis in our housing market. We cannot afford the homes in this state, and it's because BlackRock bought up 41% of the homes on the market, turning what once was a way to build wealth into a drain on our wallets, into these monopolies' pockets. We need to make Florida free. This downtown, zephyr Hills, should be a bustling hub of local stores, but it's not because big businesses, these big box stores, have stolen the market because they can provide the services for cheaper.
Speaker 2:They make wages go lower because they hire more people and then set the wages for the state. So we don't get the wages we need to buy the goods that we want, to buy the homes that we want. We become homeless and then they buy private prisons and they make being homeless illegal. So they set wages lower than we can afford, prices above what we can afford, housing prices above what we can afford, push us into homelessness, put us into prisons for being homeless and then profit off us being in prisons. It is not a free market. It is a market controlled by corporations.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:And we need to return it to the people, man that's the braver.
Speaker 1:You're preaching today. Yeah, you're preaching today, man. Hey, that is wonderful how you stated that, man. But I always say as well to my families and friends I say how can everything around us go up except for our salaries?
Speaker 2:I don't understand that Profits are at a 40-year high. Ceo pay rose by 3,185% since 1980, since Reagan started cutting back on unions, worker pay at most depending on what you looked at rose 8% 3,185% to 8%. We are more productive than we have ever been and our wages don't reflect that. It's because those at the top have been stealing from us and we can see the policy allows them to do that. The corporate tax rate is 5%. Our sales tax rate is 7.5%. Corporations are paying less in taxes than most people and they drive people to Florida.
Speaker 2:They advertise it saying don't worry, you don't have an income tax. Isn't that so nice? That's what they say all the time. But when you have to spend all of your money, when you have to buy things with all your money, you can't save any of it. That sales tax becomes an income tax because all of your income is spent. All of your income is spent on purchasing things rather than being saved. So those people making a good amount of money, making a living wage, don't have to pay a sales tax as their income tax. But us making you know, I'm making $47,000 as a teacher. I have to spend all that money. So that 7.5% sales tax becomes an income tax. It's stealing from me, so I pay.5% sales tax becomes an income tax stealing from me, so I pay more than corporations that do in this state. Yeah, and my taxes go to funding roads that those corporation used to fuel their business. Right, so my taxes go to supporting them. Their taxes don't go to supporting us.
Speaker 1:Man, that's then. That's why you're standing against that.
Speaker 2:Exactly yes, sir.
Speaker 1:Mr Ben Braver, first of all, when I first saw your name I was like, okay, this guy here, he's going to win something in life at some point, as your name fits it very well being braver and you remind me of my movie. It's me thinking on a, I guess, more simplistic level. Braveheart, that's one of my favorite movies, Mel Gibson. So going in that sort of changing gears here, I understand your passion there, right, what a wonderful introduction. But what are some of your hobbies? What do you like doing? I love playing guitar.
Speaker 2:You sing too. No, I'm a terrible singer.
Speaker 1:Well, I tell you what man. I think you have a good voice. Do you ever try?
Speaker 2:I have a strong voice.
Speaker 2:A strong voice I don't have a strong pitch, though Got it. My sister tells me it's like knives stuck in her ears. Now I do love doing karaoke. Okay, the people around there love singing with me or try to sing over me, so they don't have to hear me. But I love thing over me, so they don't have to hear me. Um, but I love playing guitar. Um, I love chess great game. Um. I love hanging out with my friends. Um, video games of course, great. Uh, other hobbies that I have favorite video game favorite video game.
Speaker 2:Okay, uh, overwatch, you ever play it? No, oh, I was. I was every day after school and hang out with my best friend. We'd play Overwatch for so long. There's another great game called Nidhogg, an indie game. You're just a guy with a sword running at another guy with a sword and it's like a side scroller and you have to fight to get to the other end of the screen. Honestly fantastic game. I spent probably 200 hours playing that over my life.
Speaker 1:Okay, any sports at all.
Speaker 2:Any sports Watching Love, watching hockey Go Lightning, go Bolts. And, of course, going to the USF football game Go Bulls. That was my most fun and now we're going to start winning again. Yes, yes, I was about to say that piece.
Speaker 1:there was a little missing. Yeah, the winning piece.
Speaker 2:When I was in high school, I was in the marching band and my high school team lost every single game for my entire four years.
Speaker 1:It was for four years. For four years, how many coaches did they?
Speaker 2:have One. I mean, I think we did not switch it out he had to know somebody.
Speaker 1:He was there for four years and lost every game.
Speaker 2:Every single game.
Speaker 1:Wow, and then at.
Speaker 2:USF. Every game for the three years that I was there, graduated a year early, okay, but then that year that I graduated early, we started winning because we got Byron Brown great quarterback. We finally had the winning record the year before I left USF God.
Speaker 1:I know I don't know man.
Speaker 2:You didn't bring bad luck to the sports. Huh, I would. I would actually. You can find pictures of me I was. I would go in this full green suit with a cape and with like a hulk outfit on me. I'd be leading the cheers. That very loud voice love doing that. Um, but yeah, it was. It was sad but it was fun because the students at usf best students in the world and we cared I don't know, man, that had to be like a state record to lose every game for four years straight. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's football, right, football, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:But we had the Bucs, which is fun to watch.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, we had Brady, so we'll go ahead. At Comfort Measures Consulting. We're here to help you navigate the complexity of healthcare. If you're caring for a loved one as a caregiver, you don't have resources, you don't know what questions to ask. You need to have options right. Give Comfort Measures a call. Give us a chance. First consultation is free. Speak with me, comfort Measures Consultant 850-879-2182. You can also visit our website at wwwconfermedicinesconsultingcom. Talk to you soon. We're going to go ahead into this maybe sort of hobby trend. We'll go into something exciting which I like to play games on the show as well. So a couple of questions. What's your favorite genre of music?
Speaker 2:Genre of music I'd say indie rock. Indie rock, yeah, I like, with a driving beat. Dr Dog is great. I have a song O'Nelly perfect vibe. Perfect vibe I don't say fun is my favorite band. We Are Young is my probably favorite song of all time, but I like that, just like vibey music okay, all right.
Speaker 1:Uh, if you could uh snoop through one person's belongings a famous celebrity who would it be one?
Speaker 2:person's belongings it could be dead, live, yep okay, and by belonging is anything they've ever owned, or doing one anything that they ever owned okay um, I guess I would have to go with oh, this is hard, their belongings, um, and get away with it too. Get away with it. Oh, they wouldn't even know. They wouldn't even know. Okay, all right, all right. Uh, my mind is absolutely blank. I didn't. I've never thought this is an interesting question. I've never thought about that before.
Speaker 1:Um, honestly, you know what Trump I want to see what he has like, what little knickknacks he has around, like what things?
Speaker 2:because he just doesn't seem like a person to me at all Like a character, yeah. So I want to see what he owns was like important to him you know, yeah, character yeah.
Speaker 1:So I want to see what he owns was like important to him. You know, yeah, what would you say is important to you? Like one, whether it's a object or a gaming system, or a boat, or what is something you say no one better not touch it.
Speaker 2:That's mine I'll tell you what. Uh, my tie-dye t-shirts. I I love my tie-dye. You know, I to camp, I was a camp counselor. Okay, tie-dye is I love it, it's really cute. Any pets, any pets I have a rat, bat, cat, just terrible dog, muck, duck, the worst thing ever. But I love it. It's very cute. But it runs up and bites me, just random. If I high-five somebody, if I smile, if I just look too hard in this general direction, it'll run run up teeth. It draws unhinged like a snake, right it's. It loves me, though, but that's just way of showing affection, okay.
Speaker 1:Then this other dog, a hard bite or like a just a oh yeah, oh yeah it gripped.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dog, a hard bite or like a, just a oh yeah, oh yeah it it gripped. Yeah, I'd have to run up the stairs as a kid I uh what the yeah, that's a unique type of relationship there yeah, yeah, uh. We have another dog ned, the best dog ever. It's like a lump of meat. You're gonna throw her around, she doesn't care about anything does not bite me, doesn't bite anything, got it. Uh. Now if muck duck gets aggro, uh, if he starts getting aggressive then Ned will follow, but she doesn't know what she's doing, she's just barking.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's an interesting type of dog. I don't think he'd be in my house.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it loves my mom more than anything. I think that's why it hates me. My mom loves me and is jealous.
Speaker 1:Oh, yep, that's probably what it is yeah. Yeah, so this I can tell you very interesting. You have a wonderful personality. What do you think your students, what do they enjoy about you?
Speaker 2:That I don't give homework. I don't believe in it. What If you want to get into it? It trains people to do free overtime. School is practically a full-time job, and the way that this government is mandating it now it has to be bell-to-bell work, doesn't give any breaks, very little recess for the kids, right, it's training them on how to be a good worker or how to be a good prisoner. Right, the straight school-to-prison pipeline is real. And homework trains them on how to do overtime.
Speaker 2:Now, if my kids don't finish work working class, yeah, they should finish at home, because that work's important for them, right, but I don't give homework because I believe that's wrong. Now, they also love me because every day I go into work and I have a briefcase and I slam it on the table and say what do you think's in this briefcase? And they really love doing that, and I'm a science teacher. I believe in fostering their natural inquisitiveness. Right, if they have a question about how something works, we'll delve into it, because at this age they're not going to remember what the DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid, right, they're just not going to remember that. Yeah, I never knew it. They're just going to remember how to ask a question and how to find an answer.
Speaker 1:Oh, gotcha, and especially with AI.
Speaker 2:that's what's really important to teach them critical thinking skills, and that's what our government is literally against teaching critical thinking.
Speaker 1:So let me ask what does your principal think about the no homework policy?
Speaker 2:My principal loves that we get results and loves that our kids are learning. A lot of the kids come in here behind the state average and our state average is well behind the national average and one of the main reasons is because of COVID. They weren't given the opportunity they needed to succeed, to learn the basic skills that they need. But when you foster their natural inquisitiveness, when you foster their want to ask questions, they do better.
Speaker 1:I feel like that, as an adult, you foster my inquisitive nature. That's what I read about, that's what I'm interested in, but yes, for sure. Yeah. So asking you this next question because you seem very highly motivated and so you don't need to be motivated by anyone else, do?
Speaker 2:you, it helps. I mean, having a team next to you is when I did the whole Stanford Freedom Walkout I was about an MSNBC right and it was great and I told them I can't come on. One our entire point is about diversity and how these marginalized people have been attacked, and I'm a straight white male. If I go on there by myself, I can't represent the people. They're asking me to speak for. Two the entire point is about diversity and that nothing gets done without other people supporting you and helping you along the way. So I told them I'm not coming on unless you let me bring somebody else. They said no, we only want you, and I'm like that defeats the entire message. So, finally, let me bring somebody else on Representative Ana Eskamani, an incredible state legislature who is doing the work out in Orlando to help the people. And, yeah, having a team along with you, having that diversity of thought, helps you, and so that really motivates me when other people are showing how much they care and how much good that we all can do right.
Speaker 1:So you're gen z correct? Yeah, all right. Uh, would you consider yourself? The rep is a great representation um, I'd hope so.
Speaker 2:I I hope to be a great representative of my generation.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, okay, uh, if electing you, what does that mean for a Florida aging community?
Speaker 2:The same problems that the aging communities. Their real defining trait is being on a fixed income right, because there are so many different things beyond them. When you're older, you usually are retired, right, and if you're not, you need even more economic help. But with insurance, home insurance and car insurance skyrocketing, with the benefits they're receiving and the pensions they're receiving plummeting, we need to get those people who are on a fixed income just like the younger generation, just like the older generation more help. They have the least resources and they need the most investment. I agree, and so it means they'll see more help. They have the least resources and they need the most investment. I agree, yeah, and so it means they'll see more investment. If you're a person who is being disregarded by the state, right, who isn't here, coming in with $400,000 right off the bat? I'm here to help you, because what we see is that Florida is the land of opportunity if you're already rich, but if you're not, they're just pushing you further down and stealing your money and giving it to those who are already rich.
Speaker 1:Right, right, got it. So how do you keep Florida, the retirement state, aside from those people that's coming here already rich?
Speaker 2:So being the retirement state is because we're warm right Now. We are not going to see any problems with warmth in the future is why I can't canvas or god's eye door knocking, because you come to the door drenched in sweat. It looks like you just took a shower you came here.
Speaker 1:I remember that's how we initially met. Yeah, we went door to door. He is hands-on.
Speaker 2:I can't admit that yeah, it's what you have to be. I mean, and I hear so many stories from people that I wouldn't be able to hear if I was just paying for ads all the place like, my opponent is right and I get to hear what people actually need. Yes, sir, um, actually my opponent's office is right down the street and I was talking to his neighbors who had never even heard of him, right, never even seen his face. Um, with his office being right next door because he doesn't care about the people, he just cares about the big businesses and how he can help them. But keeping it the retirement capital of the world is about keeping our nature intact, keeping it to be a place where people want to come.
Speaker 2:But just this week DeSantis used the Department of Environmental Protection to start paving over our natural parks. The state, the Hillsborough, the river park of Hillsborough County, right down the road, is going to be paved over with disc golf and pickleball, and seven other parks across the state are going to have golf courses and hotels built in them. It's disgusting. I mean we need that wildlife Once that gets destroyed. For instance, the USF Forest Preserve, which I helped lead a protest against paving that over. That was the last natural wildlife corridor in the state. If that was destroyed, all of our wetlands would be destroyed. And it's not just important for the environment if we're getting people to come down here. It's important for our water quality. We have 8,000 people coming in here every single week. If we don't preserve that water quality, we will all start seeing drastic negative health consequences to ourselves and to our children.
Speaker 1:That is very true, very true. So, from the education aspect, right, what are some improvement you'd like to see just in education in general? And I would say, more target focus on our students in higher grades, so from ninth grade to 12th grade?
Speaker 2:So two different things. First of all, we're spending 4.2. Billion on our private education system. With the new vouchers that my opponent supported, 75% of that money will go to people who could already afford a private education, which means they're taking $3 billion out of the public education system out of poor people's hands and just giving it to already rich people. Even so, even for that last 25% who couldn't afford one before they denied a rider, they denied an amendment which wouldn't allot these private corporations from raising their tuitions by the exact amount the voucher was for.
Speaker 2:So those people who it was supposed to help and give more choice to can't even use it to get more choice. And 69% of the private schools that we have in the state are unaccredited, meaning we don't know what they're teaching. And if we took that $4.2 billion back, gave it to the money the taxpayers wanted to fund the public school system, then we would raise the state teachers' pay from $54,000 on average to $69,000 on average, which is the national average pay. We would hire the 5,000 teachers that were missing in this state and we'd eliminate all school meal debt, which shouldn't exist in the first place In the first place.
Speaker 2:And we'd still have $800 million left over. We're spending more money privatizing our education system. We're spending more money destroying our education system than it would take to fix it. And in our higher level grades we need more individual opportunities. We need where a bachelor's degree gives you access to a full-time, good paying job. They've just become hedge funds that give out degrees Right and they don't actually prepare our students for the future.
Speaker 2:We need to stop that and we need to make sure that everybody has access to vocational job training and to higher education when they want it for free, because you need a bachelor's degree to have a good, paying job at this point, and a master's degree is a new bachelor's degree. You're right, and I mean. These universities have larger endowments than some countries' GDP. They've just become hedge funds people to place their money in, rather than places to actually give our kids skills, and what we see is that you shouldn't need that bachelor's degree, because most of the skills you get for a job you get on the job and when you make sure our schools are funded, it gives kids the work ethic they need right and the critical thinking they need that employers want to see, not just sitting them through endless boring classes that don't teach them what they need.
Speaker 1:Right, because I haven't used PIE since seventh grade.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep. Things are so specialized we don't need to learn everything right. We need to learn in the lower grades. Yes, you need a basic education, and that's one of the best things our government provides giving everybody basic education and a lot. Once you get up there, you should be able to specialize.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. Now, if and I'll just say this, and I'm just going to ask you this question If our audience here for our 60 and above audience, right, if they're listening to you right now, what is a strong message you could offer?
Speaker 2:them. We want to expand Medicaid. A lot of people in this state 800,000 people don't have access to it and it's because our state Senate and state legislature have denied federal funds to expand it and they claim to be fiscally responsible. We don't want to waste the taxpayer money. We pay our federal taxes, we paid for those services and they're denying the services that we paid for. Right, they're not being fiscally responsible. They're denying the services we paid for and we need that. We need to make sure that, if you're living on a fixed income, that you can stay there right, that you're getting your pension, you're getting your full pension, you're getting your social security right.
Speaker 2:The way the Republicans have set up the system, they have broken it and then blamed it for being broken. If we gave people the wages they deserve, right, didn't let these corporations and these executives steal all of our money, we'd have enough money for the Social Security system, because all of it is being put in these very few people's hands. We don't have the taxes going to it that we need it to be going to, and so our Social Security system will be bankrupt by 2035. Our social security system will be bankrupt by 2035. And Rick Scott, the current state senator for this area was indicted on stealing billions of dollars for a Medicaid program, but he's still our state senator. Yeah, he used the Fifth Amendment like over 20 times during those trials, because you use that when you don't want to make yourself, when you don't want to show that you're guilty for another crime. So he was guilty for many crimes against the people who need their health care. He was targeting the most vulnerable people and that's who I'm running to protect. I'm running to give everybody access to their health care.
Speaker 2:I'm running to make sure we have public transportation, because those over 60, they have to start thinking about whether or not they could drive. But there is no public way to get from place to place. You have to give all of your money to Ford and GM and Shell and BP, who are destroying our environment, and we have to give all our money to subsidizing those vehicles with roads, which means they're subsidizing a private corporation, right, there's no public way to get from place to place. You have to give your money from private corporations, and those over 60 can't do that as easily. We need public transportation because so many of them live in food deserts where they don't have easily accessible nutritious food, and when you're that old, that matters even more, so we need to give them access to that through public transportation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can't have proper healing without proper nutrition. It does not work. So, as we wrap up our wonderful conversation here today, definitely enjoyed it. But what's new for you? Some new initiative that you may have coming in the future?
Speaker 2:I appreciate that we are going. We are doing weekly community conversations every single week at crate in Wesley Chapel. Great, like I love it, because one of the few places where they make sure it's only small businesses. Now, right next there are a ton of huge big box stores, right Places built for cars, not for people. But, crepe, you have to have small businesses and I love it. So we're supporting those small businesses by holding weekly community conversations at Cafe Zorba every Saturday at 7. 8 am, 7 pm, 8 am okay. And we are also doing another community conversation every single week from anywhere in Pasco and Hillsborough. On my website, benbraverorg, and on all my social media, which is at benbraverfl, specifically on my Facebook and Instagram, again at benbraverfl, we are posting where that weekly community conversation will be. And on my website, benbraverorg, you'll find a ton of different ways to volunteer, and there is a great website, mobilizeorg, where you can find volunteer opportunities for any Democratic cause that you want across your area or anywhere across the nation.
Speaker 1:That's really good. I think I want to join at least one of those sessions at Crate. Crate is a wonderful venue. Building Crate has been a monument almost here in Pasco County, definitely off the interstate, like you said, fostering the small businesses in a way where it's generated a lot of attraction to the county as well, where it's generating a lot of attraction to the county as well.
Speaker 2:There's so much economic development when these Republicans who claim to care about the economy, right, all they do is let monopolies take control of it, which destroys the economy. Small businesses are the way you get a thriving economy, that's a free economy. Thriving economy that's a free economy. And even Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations, the Bible of capitalism that he wrote all the way back in 1776, I think. Even there it says that you need a strong government to get rid of the monopolies that are inherent to capitalism. That's how it works, right. But you need a strong government to control the monopolies and the oligarchies, control of our economy and to make sure that it is actually free. You need that balance. But these people don't understand that they sacrifice our economy on the altar of freedom, while they're pushing it down, keeping it in chains, in shackles that are tied to these monopolies. We need to free them of that and make sure small businesses can thrive.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, yes sir, and a lot of that comes from just what you're doing now and where you're starting your career off at in the schools, like you said, removing that vocational, it removed a lot of entrepreneurs, right, growing up, from plumbing to carpentry work. All of those things were taken out of schools years ago, right, but it also allowed the monopoly to happen yeah well, with the law corporations taking over those, those aspects in business.
Speaker 2:I, I was just thinking about, I really just put into words. I'd like the other day I haven't actually haven't said this on any uh channel yet, but they, america has gone from a place that celebrates entrepreneurship to celebrating franchises. Right, and because franchises they're like a mcdonald's that comes into your uh community. They make money by, uh, making their prices higher than the cost of goods. So any place makes money, right. But for the corporation to get that money they have to make it even higher, right, which means making their prices higher than the cost of the goods. So any place makes money, right. But for the corporation to get that money they have to make it even higher, right, which means when we spend money at a McDonald's, some of our money from our local community gets put into McDonald's headquarters.
Speaker 2:And so those franchises that we see everywhere steal money from local communities and funnel it into those monopolies hands. But if we had entrepreneurs, that's keeping the money in our communities hands, just like community land trusts. When we see these monopolies taking over our localities, buying up all the homes and rental units and turning the homes into rental units, that's draining the money from our economy, putting it into those monopolies' hands. But if our state which I want to do invests in community land trusts so that the land stays in our community's hands, that money stays in our community's hands and can be further reinvested in our community, building it up rather than draining it up.
Speaker 1:Man, that was deep right, you just enlightened me with that one but so very inspiring conversation, mr Braver. I mean just, I know our comfort listeners probably learn a lot about you, just what I learned, honestly, I have to be honest, when I saw how young you were and just what you're aspiring to become. It takes a level of confidence, it takes a level of somebody being motivated. Bravery, bravery. There you go, yeah, but thank you so much for joining let's get comfort podcast. I think you did a wonderful job today. We I hope your listeners really tune in. Please check him out. He indicated all his social media accounts, his website as well, where you can follow him. If not join. You said on Saturdays at 7 am, 7 pm, 7 pm yes, sorry about that. 7 pm at Crates you can join this discussion group here. He also allows volunteering. Become more involved in your community, in civic engagement as well. But thank you so much for tuning in.
Speaker 2:Yes, I want to say I appreciate what you're doing. You know, uplifting local voices. Yes, make sure that everybody gets a chance to engage with the community and learn what's going on, because that's so important when we're losing so much our media space. So you taking stepping up and make sure that local voices can be uplifted and can speak out. I appreciate that so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much. It's a journey with me just starting, but again you gave me the opportunity. Some people would have not stopped and said I follow back up Cause what we met a couple months ago and we still stay in the communication and you still kept your word and joined the show. So I'm very grateful, man. So thank you All right. Yes, sir, Thank you All right. Thank you, Stay tuned. Thanks for watching. If you found this information helpful, don't forget to like, comment and subscribe and hit the notification bell so you never miss an update. Have any comments? I want to share your thoughts. Drop them in the comment section below. Until next time, stay in power.
