Devil's Dictionary of Economics

Victor Aguilar has a pretty funny humor page on his website, www.axiomaticeconomics.com/devils_dictionary.php

It is mostly about economics (he ridicules McCain's gas-tax holiday in his definition of "free lunch") but it also has stuff about politics. See, for example, his definitions of "Nascar Dads" and "Soccer Moms."

A gas tax holiday would not be like a free lunch. It would be more like the person who went to the store and bought the food, took it home and washed the veggies and fruit and made a pbj and put it on a plate actually got to eat it instead of giving it to the government.

From Fact Checker which BTW gives the gas tax holiday proposal 2 Pinocchios.

all I am saying is its not a free lunch. Its a lunch the people worked and paid for over and over. It may very well end up to be a savings of a lunch. but it would be our saving our own money not the governments.

Eliminate the Gas tax,

Eliminate Earmarks,

Give the Highway Trust Fund a raise

We still have BILLIONS left over.

I know, its silly to think our government should eliminate waste and lower taxes when they can just as easily increase both.

For reference, Aguilar's definition of a free lunch is:

"There’s no such thing. For instance, the money for John McCain’s summer gas-tax holiday comes from funds for maintaining highways and bridges. But the need for repairs is still there. He’ll either raise the gas tax after the election or risk having the bridges fall down. Anyway, encouraging people to burn a lot of gas before the election (and draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) will just postpone their acquiring fuel-efficient vehicles and will create shortages after the election. If Americans put McCain in the White House because they appreciate the summer vacations in their gas hogs that he paid for, it’ll serve them right if they freeze to death for lack of heating oil when the snows come after the November election. See Waste."

There may be better ways to build and maintain highways and bridges (e.g. private companies charging tolls), but that is a seperate issue. Right now the Federal Government does build and maintain highways and bridges, they pay for that with the gas tax and they will continue to do so after the election.

I think Aguilar is right: Since this is an ongoing expense, if the government lowers taxes now, they will just have to raise them again later. The total amount collected must remain the same (whether the bulk is collected before or after the election) or we risk seeing the bridges fall down.

Also, check out Aguilar's definition of "irony."

Cheers!