Misdirection

"Misdirection, in its simplest form, refers to getting your audience to look one way while you conduct some magical activity the other way." How to Use Misdirection in Magic site

On April 23, 2009, President Obama (D) noting a lack of "clarity and transparency" in credit card operations, imperiously declared his determination to get a credit-card law that eliminates the tricky fine print, sudden rate increases, and late fees credit card companies charge consumers:

"'I trust that those in the industry who want to act responsibly will engage with us in a constructive fashion, and that we're going to get this done in short order,' Obama said, delivering a pointed message to leading executives of credit-card issuing companies after a closed-door White House meeting.

"Both the House and the Senate are pursuing bills to give consumers greater protections as an expansion of new rules slated to take effect next year. Obama said his economic advisers will examine the various proposals and work with Congress and the industry, but he made clear he wants to sign a bill into law.

"'The days of any time, any reason rate hikes, and late fee traps have to end.'"

People think about credit card companies about the same way as funeral parlors--businesses making money when the customer is in trouble. But credit card companies operate more like casinos. Casinos use misdirection: they ply you with cheap drinks and food. Machines by the doors--open to the street so you can hear bells ringing and whistles blowing--clamorously announce winners. Long-legged cocktail waitresses glide by in revealing attire, tempting you to stay and play until you've nothing left.

Credit card companies, like casinos, entice you in with offers of low APRs, interest-free balance transfers, or low introductory consolidation loans. Once you become a customer, just as in a casino, they try everything to get you to stay and spend. After you've spent your money, making a deal at one interest rate, they've included in their fine print that they can change the deal, usually after you carried a balance--that's when they bump the rate up to some exorbitant fee and you can't escape.

President Obama wants to change that and he outlined his requirements for any legislation:

"Protections so that consumers won't face sudden, surprising jumps in fees; requirements that companies publish their forms in plainspoken language, with no more fine print; the availability of customer-friendly comparison shopping on credit-card offers; and greater enforcement so that violators feel the full weight of the law."

Here's the crux though, you can choose not to get a credit card, and you can choose not to go to Las Vegas and gamble. But you can't choose not to pay for the federal government. Why doesn't he apply his "principles" instead to the IRS--a part of the federal government--something for which he actually has Constitutional authority?

Plainspoken language? No more fine print? The Internal Revenue code, Title 26 of the US Code of Federal Regulations, is over 13,975 pages and a printed copy is available from the government printing office for $1039 as of April 2008.

Jumps in fees? President Obama is setting up a review group to overhaul the tax code in 2010, but the goal is to make sure non-federal government employees don't escape paying taxes, not to lower costs for citizens. The Obama administration estimates that they can collect $300 billion more annually of uncollected taxes. According to Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management and the Budget:

"I do want to say $300 billion a year or more is a lot of money, and we are interested in being as aggressive as possible in trying to reduce that number."

Violators feeling the full weight of the law?

• What would become of former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D), President Obama's secretary of HHS, who didn't pay $7000 in taxes to the IRS?
• Or former undersecretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department in the Clinton administration, CFR member, former Director of the IMF Policy Development and Review Department, and former NY Federal Reserve Bank president TImothy Geithner (D), President Obama's secretary of the Treasury and now running our increasingly centrally-planned economy, for not paying $42,000 in income tax?
• Or Tom Daschle (D), President Obama's first secretary of HHS nominee, for not paying $128,000 in income tax?
• Or former assistant treasury secretary in the Clinton administration Nancy Killefer (D), and President Obama's nominee to be Chief Performance Officer, for not paying unemployment taxes in D.C. for a household employee?
• Or former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk (D), President Obama's Chief Trade Representative for not paying $10,000 to the IRS?

"Direct your eyes, conversation and body language to the opposite side of wherever you need the spectator to NOT look." How to Use Misdirection in Magic site

The Obama administration, like all others, relies on misdirection:

• A February 23, 2009 USA Today article describes President Obama's announcement of his plan to cut the deficit in half by 2013. The misdirection here is that the President had just signed into law a $787 billion stimulus bill that will make the deficit $1.3 trillion right now. The misdirection here is ignoring the stimulus bill that massively increased the deficit and ignoring the increased taxes the Obama administration wants to help pay for the stimulus and reduce the deficit.
• On March 11, 2009, President Obama signs a $410 billion spending bill while complaining about $12.8 billion, or 3 percent, of the money in the latest bill that went to earmarks. Earmarks allow lawmakers to specify what the money is spent on. The President, Congress, and the news media get the public worked up over $12.8 billion, while a number 32 times greater is authorized to be spent by nameless bureaucrats; that's misdirection.
• On March 16, 2009, President Obama and others in his administration criticized AIG for paying $165 million in executive bonuses with taxpayer money on one hand, while knowing in advance about the bonuses after the Fed and the US government paid $170 billion to AIG. Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn) and Secretary of the Treasury Geithner tried to defuse the political fallout when it became public that the bailout money was paid while bureaucrats knew in advance about the bonuses. Despite the complaints, it was misdirection mission accomplished as citizens were mad at AIG about $165 million and not at the federal government about a sum 1,000 times greater.

"Do not abuse misdirection. The key to misdirection is subtlety, and it can become subconsciously annoying to spectators if heavily repeated." How to Use Misdirection in Magic site

The question is, "what will the annoyed spectators do?"