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!