Two Habits That Make YOU A Bad Voter

I'm not saying you have these habits, but if you do, please stop immediately. And friends don't let friends act this way, either!

Habits of Bad Voters
1. You get ALL your political news from one source.
2. You don't realize the U.S. budget has two simple components.

Let's start with #1. This would make you a bad voter because you could be getting all the WRONG facts from whatever your one source of news is. This holds true whether you get your news from Air America or Fox "News" or The Daily Show.

Here's an example. There is nothing wrong with watching Fox "News" as long as you realize it's mostly conservative opinion. Believe it or not, that is NOT fact. And any good American voter should get all the facts before hopefully coming to a decision about public issues (instead of being just another bs slinger). Otherwise, you're hurting us all.

There is irony in the fact that this is generally a conservative problem (not entirely, though, don't get me wrong). These are the same people who say that we need checks and balances in government, thus you should be voting conservative right now regardless of how you feel so that no one party has too much power. Well, how about getting your information from more than one source? You know, like your own checks and balances? Duh.

Habit #2 I just can't understand. Listen up, cause I'm only going to say this once. The government's budget is just like your budget. There are two parts -- revenues (money coming in, i.e. tax receipts) and expenses (money going out, i.e. program spending). Details are complicated, but overall it's easy.

So when someone's trying to sell you "tax cuts for all" it sure does sound nice. I certainly want a tax cut for me. But it also means taking away revenue, which has the EXACT SAME effect on the budget as spending more.

The easy way to NOT get into these habits is as follows. First, get all the facts from each side. Go right to the source and find out what each side is saying, don't rely on what other people tell you secondhand. Then, carefully weigh the effect on the budget and who the proposal helps/hurts. YOU can have your own opinion. Just because you haven't heard a news person say it/blog it/twitter it, it doesn't mean you're wrong!