We know why. This sin of omission wasn’t an accidental oversight. It was a feint because many Americans wouldn’t have followed the wizard had they known the truth.

There’s a reason the ACA implemented the popular aspects of the bill first — allowing parents to cover their children until age 26 and eliminating their children’s preexisting-condition barrier to insurance coverage — before the 2012 election and postponed the nasty news until enough people were hooked on Obamacare’s sugar. And, of course, after the president was reelected. This is what Republicans were referring to when they wanted to impede the law before the rollout because people might like it. Sugar is addictive after all.

Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau tried to explain otherwise. The president kept repeating the promise — some 23 times — because the White House was trying to keep things simple so as not to confuse people with too many details, he said. This is not only insulting on its face but also not precisely true. Some might have been alarmed by the details, but they wouldn’t have been confused. Either the White House doesn’t have faith in the people or it doesn’t have faith in its own plan.