All pages, right and left, were identical as to text and number.

From the Trojan horse to the plywood missile launchers of the Persian Gulf, misdirection is also routine in war... and in politics. Today, misdirection is being used in the health care debate. But many Americans don't get it.

Our focus should be on these indisputable facts:

• The U.S. is the only developed country that does not provide some form of universal health care.
• We pay twice as much on average as other countries, and
• With few exceptions, we get no better health results and often worse.

So the proper question is: "Why does our health care (and insurance) cost so much more than other countries for the results we get?"

Instead, we are misdirected: "Are you satisfied with the quality of your health care? Do you like your doctors and nurses? Did you get reasonable care? Was the food good?"

Just three months ago, a thorough analysis of our health care system by the McKinsey Global Institute found that:

"In summary, the U.S. health care system costs more than $650 billion (annually) over and above what we might expect for the nation's wealth, nearly two-thirds of that amount associated with outpatient care. ... Furthermore, we find that the additional expenditure cannot be justified on the grounds that the U.S. has a higher prevalence of disease or that the system is delivering superior value for the money expended."

According to the study, we spend $91 billion more than we should just for insurance and administration. Medicare Part D alone adds $5 billion in administrative costs (and untold billions more because Medicare was is not, and will not be, allowed to bargain for better drug prices.) Drug companies are cheering

Last week, Rep. Jerry Moran, (R-KS-01) spoke in Russell, KS, "beside a sea of flags," pushing diet and exercise and making the usual noises about spending and "big government."

Apparently, no one asked Moran whether there is such a thing as big government run by corporate dollars and whether we've got one of those. Or why our health care system costs so damned much compared to other developed nations.

According to Public Citizen (and other sources), the health care industry has been spending $1.4 million a day smooching Senators and Representatives and patting them on their fannies. There are 6 health care lobbyists for every member of Congress. And it's not just the Republicans -- who want health care reform so bad they did zilch, nada, nothing about it for 70 years -- in the corporate plutocrats' pocket. Fifty of those health care lobbyists are former employees of Sen. Max Baucus, (D-MT) Senate Finance Committee chairman.

It's the tip of the iceberg. Don't think for a second that much in the steady stream of e-mail forwards isn't cooked up by corporate funded think tanks. They are very good at what they do.

So, oh gee, what is it do you think they're paying for these days? In politi-babble, it's called "regulatory capture."

As Harper's Luke Mitchell predicted, health care legislation will likely pass without a real public option, and the health industry and the insurance companies will celebrate.

They will continue to find more and more ways to maximize their profits at our expense. That's because predictably they will control when, what, how, and if regulations are enforced - and who makes those judgments.

There's something the flag-waving, hymn-singing, abortion-criminalizing, gay-despising, gun-fixated, liberal-bashing, tea-partying, reason-deficient, racist fringe should think carefully about. Our (not 'the') government should be looking after "our" vital interests, not those of "the" corporate profiteers. Affordable health care for all is one of those interests. That requires a government of, for, and by the people - one stronger than the biggest and greediest private interests - and certainly not a government by those same interests.

The old trustbuster Teddy Roosevelt understood. Sad that more Americans today don't.