The other mayor running for president: A conversation with Wayne Messam
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Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing Miramar, Florida, Mayor Wayne Messam, who recently announced his candidacy for president of the United States. Mayor Messam happens to be from the same area I grew up in, the Glades area of Florida, on the SoutheaThe other mayor running for president: A conversation with Wayne Messam
Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing Miramar, Florida, Mayor Wayne Messam, who recently announced his candidacy for president of the United States. Mayor Messam happens to be from the same area I grew up in, the Glades area of Florida, on the Southeast shores of Lake Okeechobee. The Glades is a rural agricultural area, with a large African American and Latino population. Mayor Messam went on to star at Florida State University as a wide receiver, then established a successful construction business in Miramar, a city of 122,000 in Broward County, Florida. Below is my conversation with Mayor Messam, which has been edited for clarity. MAYOR WAYNE MESSAM: I'm on, how is everyone? ARMANDO: I’m very good. Mr. Mayor. My name is Armando Llorens. I'm a contributing editor at Daily Kos, but more importantly I also am from The Glades and I'm very excited to talk to you about your run. MESSAM: Oh, wow. Which Muck City are you from? ARMANDO: Pahokee. MESSAM: Oh, wow Pahokee. I was born in the hospital there. ARMANDO: Thank you for indulging my walk back down memory lane. Mr. Mayor. Congratulations on the launch of your campaign. I’d like to start with this question. I read about your college debt forgiveness plan. It's very impressive. I have a question, though. And I don't know if that has been fleshed out in the details of your plan. Your plan takes care of what's happened in the past. How do we look to control college debt and cost for students and families of students going forward? Do you have ideas on how to address that? MESSAM: Well, obviously, you know, once we forgive all of the debt it actually will serve as a stimulus in our package and we can get the actual plan emailed out to you specifically, but obviously we have to address the high cost of higher education for today’s borrowers. We have to support our public institutions as well as other vocational institutions, as they’ve done in California. We are promoting programs that would make state colleges and community colleges and vocational schools tuition-free. It will follow those individuals that are looking for career opportunities through that path to help reduce the cost, but we have to ensure that we lower the cost for higher education. But when you think about the plan, the plan is really to eliminate the $1.5 trillion [in student debt.]. And once we do that, on average that will save about $400 a month in actual debt payments that could be used for other things—whether it's to invest in a business, to invest in retirement, to buy real estate—economic activity that will help drive the economy. Read more