''Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive''

Let’s start with a quick lesson from Minute Maid® We have all seen this before. The packaging is designed to make it look like there is something special about this package. Free something or other. Bonus: 20% more. New and Improved. We have come to expect this as typical marketing, but when it is blatantly deceptive it is insulting is it not?

This packaging says, “ 2 more boxes than other leading juice box 8-packs.”




This packaging also says, “10 pack.”

Are the folks at Minute Maid® telling us that a 10 pack has 2 more boxes than an eight pack or are they trying to make us think we are getting 2 more boxes for the same price as an 8 pack? What they actually say on the package is true. How they say it is intended to deceive.

Example from a radio interview with President Obama:

Q And Congress has voted, to my understanding, not to join the public plan once it passes because they want to keep their good federal plan. Would you be willing to either urge Congress to have the federal employees join the public plan, or would you be willing to urge Congress to somehow open up the federal health plan to all Americans?

MR. SMERCONISH: Thank you, Ernie. I hear this all the time, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, it's a great question, Ernie. First of all, understand that currently federal employees have a very good health care plan because they're able to leverage the insurance companies. There are so many members of their -- of the federal workforce that they can get the best rates possible. Every insurance company wants to do business with the federal government. So premiums are lower and it's a better deal overall.

The same concept is what we're trying to do in setting up what's called a health insurance exchange. Essentially it'd be a marketplace where people who currently don't have health insurance or small businesses could pool their numbers so they have leverage over the insurance companies and they could go on a Web site and look at the various options, the types of various private health insurance plans that are being offered, and choose the one that's best for their families. So we're actually trying to duplicate what exists for federal employees. We want to make that available to everybody else.

Now, what we have said is, let's make a public option one choice of many choices that are available to people who are joining the exchange. And I see nothing wrong with potentially having that public option as one option for federal employees, as well.

But the important thing that I think I have to make absolutely clear: Nobody would be obligated to choose the public option. If you went on that Web site and you said, you know what, Aetna or Blue Cross Blue Shield are offering a good deal and I would rather choose that plan than the public plan, you'd be perfectly free to do so. Nobody would be saying you are obligated to go into a public plan.

MR. SMERCONISH: I think what folks are saying is that they'd love it if you'd stand up and say, whatever it is that we're creating, be it a co-op, be it a public option, whatever name ultimately might be ascribed to it, we in the executive branch, we in the Congress, we will live with exactly these parameters.

THE PRESIDENT: I think there would be -- I think it would make perfect sense for us to make the public option available to federal employees, as well. But keep in mind it would just be a choice.

The President says the choice available to the public should also be a choice to the executive branch and the Congress. The question was, “Do citizens get the same healthcare choices as members of Congress?” and the answer was, “Congress gets the same healthcare choices as citizens.” Do you see the difference? Do you see the deception? The statement, while it does not answer the question is true, but is clearly intended to deceive. The carpool has two vehicles. One is a Prius and the other is an Expedition. Citizens get the Prius and the members of Congress should be able to choose the Prius too. But keep in mind it would just be a choice (for members of Congress.)