--- title: Dumb Lawmakers Keep Mixing Up 'Fiscal' and 'Physical' description: Missouri congressmember Tracy McCreery introduced a resolution to explain to colleagues the difference between fiscal and physical. authors: - name: Ethan Wolff-Mann url: https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 160 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/ewolffmann former_staff: true published: '2016-03-31T16:16:08.000Z' modified: '2016-03-31T16:16:08.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - fiscal policy - Government - politics - pubdesk - terminology word_count: 197 canonical: https://money.com/fiscal-physical-confusing-missouri/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![McDonald's Unhappy Over McJob Addition To Dictionary](https://img.money.com/2016/03/gettyimages-2716701.jpg) It should *not* have come to this. But after biting her tongue for months, Missouri state representative Tracy McCreery (D) recently felt forced to introduce "House Resolution No. 1220," which "hereby \[urges\] the members of the Missouri House of Representatives to use the word 'fiscal' instead of 'physical' when referring to fiscal matters." Evidently, this has been an issue in the chamber, and McCreery grappled with mentioning this to her coworkers, much like you might a piece of lettuce fixed on a person's teeth. After waiting a full quarter into her term, she had to take action, and did so with the driest comedy at her disposal, a congressional resolution. ![Missouri House](https://img.money.com/2016/03/screen-shot-2016-03-31-at-11-39-23-am.png) Speaking to the [*Washington Post*](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/31/hero-lawmaker-urges-colleagues-to-stop-saying-physical-when-they-mean-fiscal/), which quite rightly called her a hero, McCreery said, "I feel like the word 'fiscal' is just very critical to doing our job properly. And I feel like that's a word that we should be cognizant of pronouncing correctly." [![Best college education image](https://content.money.com/wp-content/themes/money2018/img/college-site-banner-01.png)](https://best-colleges.time.com/money/search-colleges/?xid=cm-mcpTop200Widget) It is important, and just to set the record straight, *physical* means stuff that's perceived through the body and senses, not the mind. *Fiscal,* on the other hand, refers to financial matters and more specifically, government revenue, according to the *Oxford American Dictionary.* ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/fiscal-physical-confusing-missouri/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Politics", "item": "https://money.com/politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Dumb Lawmakers Keep Mixing Up 'Fiscal' and 'Physical'" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/fiscal-physical-confusing-missouri/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/fiscal-physical-confusing-missouri/", "name": "Dumb Lawmakers Keep Mixing Up 'Fiscal' and 'Physical'", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-03-31T16:16:08.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/fiscal-physical-confusing-missouri/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/fiscal-physical-confusing-missouri/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-03-31T16:16:08.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Dumb Lawmakers Keep Mixing Up 'Fiscal' and 'Physical'", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/03/gettyimages-2716701.jpg", "width": 3000, "height": 2258, "caption": "McDonald's Unhappy Over McJob Addition To Dictionary" }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/03/screen-shot-2016-03-31-at-11-39-23-am.png", "width": 800, "height": 348 } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ethan Wolff-Mann", "url": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/ewolffmann" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-03-31T16:16:08.000Z", "description": "Missouri congressmember Tracy McCreery introduced a resolution to explain to colleagues the difference between fiscal and physical.", "abstract": "Missouri congressmember Tracy McCreery introduced a resolution to explain to colleagues the difference between fiscal and physical.", "@id": "https://money.com/fiscal-physical-confusing-missouri/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2016-03-31T16:16:08.000Z", "wordCount": 197, "keywords": [ "fiscal policy", "Government", "politics", "pubdesk", "terminology" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Politics", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics" ] } ] } ] } ```