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    <title>OpenLetter</title>
    <link>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/</link>
    <description>benjaminpodgor's Angelfire blog</description>
    <lastBuildDate>Fri, 25 Nov 2011 22:56:52 -0500</lastBuildDate>
    <language>en-us</language>
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      <title>Balanced Budget and Prosperity</title>
      <link>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/index.blog?entry_id=1431916</link>
      <guid>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/index.blog?entry_id=1431916</guid>

      <description>&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;If budject process were handled properly, we could have a balanced budget and full financial recovery.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;1.&amp;nbsp; Budget prepared without any cuts.&amp;nbsp; All services fully provided for.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(This would bring back the jobs that were lost)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;2.&amp;nbsp; Revenue to pay everything provided by rates on income&amp;nbsp;which brings in funds sufficient to meet budget expense for that year.&amp;nbsp; (And maybe a portion of deficit).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;3.&amp;nbsp; Any politican that utters the word reduction of taxes is unfit to serve.&amp;nbsp; Our annual revenue must be equal to the budget total each year.&amp;nbsp; We do not solve our problems by budget cutting.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;4.&amp;nbsp; People in public office must see that all services are provided for. Any attempt to do otherwise is a criminal act.&amp;nbsp; A failure to carry out their offical duties.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ben Podgor&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Atlanta, GA&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description> 
      <comments>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/control.comment?a=render&amp;blog_id=1344190&amp;entry_id=1431916</comments>
	
      <pubDate>Fri, 25 Nov 2011 22:56:51 -0500</pubDate>
      <source url="http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/rss.xml">OpenLetter</source>     
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      <title>In a prior blog I stated that...</title>
      <link>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/index.blog?entry_id=1428414</link>
      <guid>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/index.blog?entry_id=1428414</guid>

      <description>&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;In a prior blog I stated that my Novellette,&amp;nbsp; &amp;quot;Ode to the Revenue Code, A Novellette&amp;quot; was on sale at Barnes and Noble.&amp;nbsp; This note is just to add that it is also on sale at Amazon.com&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Both Amazon and Barnes &amp;amp; Noble offer&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;Free&lt;/strong&gt; software:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;Amazon for their Kindle&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Barnes and Noble for their Nook&lt;/p&gt;</description> 
      <comments>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/control.comment?a=render&amp;blog_id=1344190&amp;entry_id=1428414</comments>
	
      <pubDate>Sun, 24 Jul 2011 13:08:02 -0500</pubDate>
      <source url="http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/rss.xml">OpenLetter</source>     
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      <title>Reason for Our Deficit</title>
      <link>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/index.blog?entry_id=1427765</link>
      <guid>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/index.blog?entry_id=1427765</guid>

      <description>&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the present time, our politicians start off with a tax rate.&amp;nbsp; That is cheating.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;First you prepare the budget, include all necessary services, do not cheat our young people out of a true education.&amp;nbsp; You do not pad the budget, but you leave nothing out.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You then apply the budget to your taxable base.&amp;nbsp; Get the true tax rate.&amp;nbsp; It is that simple. That leaves you without any deficit for that year.&amp;nbsp; Of course you might want to consider paying off some of your old defict in your current budget.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Getting the tax rate for income tax is a little more difficult because it is necessary&amp;nbsp; to scale the rates differently for different economic levels.&amp;nbsp; But we have good mathematicians. It can be worked out.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;One area that can be dramatically improved is healthcare.&amp;nbsp; If we had a&amp;nbsp; system that gave us National Healthcare Through Medicare, we could reduce the cost of healthcare.&amp;nbsp; Most administrative costs, collection costs and things of that nature would be eliminated.&amp;nbsp; On my web site, I show how this can be done:&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://benjaminpodgor.com/&quot;&gt;http://benjaminpodgor.com&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ben&lt;/p&gt;</description> 
      <comments>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/control.comment?a=render&amp;blog_id=1344190&amp;entry_id=1427765</comments>
	
      <pubDate>Sun, 26 Jun 2011 20:49:15 -0500</pubDate>
      <source url="http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/rss.xml">OpenLetter</source>     
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      <title>Effect of Budget Cutting</title>
      <link>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/index.blog?entry_id=1426626</link>
      <guid>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/index.blog?entry_id=1426626</guid>

      <description>&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;When people seek budget cuts they should realize that they are not saving money.&amp;nbsp; In fact, they may create a loss.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;1.&amp;nbsp; Budget cuts cause an increase in unemployment.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;2. They may reduce the tax payment for the year, but lower the value &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;of their home.&amp;nbsp; When services are reduced their house and surrounding &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;property become less desireable.&amp;nbsp; A person may save $ 100 dollars on &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;taxes and lower the value of the person&amp;#39;s property by $ 100,000.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;People looking for a home want a good school district, good library &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;services, police protection, fire protection and other essential&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;services.&amp;nbsp; This is not to suggest that a padded budget should be made.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; From Atlanta, GA&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Ben Podgor&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(I hope I have corrected the spelling errors)&lt;/p&gt;</description> 
      <comments>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/control.comment?a=render&amp;blog_id=1344190&amp;entry_id=1426626</comments>
	
      <pubDate>Thu, 12 May 2011 12:05:51 -0500</pubDate>
      <source url="http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/rss.xml">OpenLetter</source>     
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      <title>Deficit discussion</title>
      <link>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/index.blog?entry_id=1426625</link>
      <guid>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/index.blog?entry_id=1426625</guid>

      <description>&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is more than one way to look at a deficit.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;It is true that our national deficit is high, but we should look at our assets.&amp;nbsp; Our National Net Worth is around 58 Trillion.&amp;nbsp; When we compare our debt to this, the national debt is not that bad.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If we used some federal funds to fix our roads and bridges we would create jobs, which in turn bring in taxes.&amp;nbsp; This domino effect is the road to recovery.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are some that say we have too many &amp;quot;entitlements&amp;quot; and should look at how people were more independent, for example in 1776. Every man carried a gun, shovel and was self reliant.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We must remember that in 1776 they may not have had toilets that flushed. They had to be self reliant for health reasons.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We need some entitlments for safety reasons, not to give things away for free.&amp;nbsp; We have built a complex society; we do have to look out for each other.&amp;nbsp; This is why we have a Police Department, Fire Department and a Very Strong National Defense.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; From Atlanta, GA&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Ben Podgor&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(I hope I have corrected the spelling errors)&lt;/p&gt;</description> 
      <comments>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/control.comment?a=render&amp;blog_id=1344190&amp;entry_id=1426625</comments>
	
      <pubDate>Thu, 12 May 2011 11:52:36 -0500</pubDate>
      <source url="http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/rss.xml">OpenLetter</source>     
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    <item>
      <title>Open Letter</title>
      <link>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/index.blog?entry_id=1426361</link>
      <guid>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/index.blog?entry_id=1426361</guid>

      <description>&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;To:&amp;nbsp; Criminal Defense Bar, with copy to all who love liberty.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;More than twenty years ago, I sent a song I wrote to someone going to prison.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;The recipient and the recipient&amp;#39;s secretary both sent me letters, regarding my song.&amp;nbsp; I proudly show the song and letters on my web site:&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://ode.benjaminpodgor.com/&quot;&gt;http://ode.benjaminpodgor.com&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This inspired me to attempt to write a novel.&amp;nbsp; It ended up as a novelllette.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Barnes and Noble has put the novellette on sale:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;strong&gt;Ode to the Revenue Code, A Novellette&amp;quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;in their Nook book section. (They supply free Nook book software for those that do not have a Nook Book.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I included Novellette in the title of the book, because both the song and the book use the same name Ode to the Revenue Code.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Enjoy, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...........&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; From Atlanta GA,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Ben Podgor&lt;/p&gt;</description> 
      <comments>http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/control.comment?a=render&amp;blog_id=1344190&amp;entry_id=1426361</comments>
	
      <pubDate>Mon,  2 May 2011 10:49:45 -0500</pubDate>
      <source url="http://www.benjaminpodgor.com/OpenLetter/rss.xml">OpenLetter</source>     
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