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Yesterday, President Obama responded to criticism that his bold and unqualified promise “if you like your plan you can keep it” was a lie. He hit back by saying his Republican critics are grossly misleading people by making overly simplistic statements that leave out important details. From Obama’s speech:

Now, there’s a fraction of Americans with higher incomes who will pay more on the front end for better insurance with better benefits and protections like the Patient’s Bill of Rights.  And that will actually save them from financial ruin if they get sick.  But nobody is losing their right to health care coverage. And no insurance company will ever be able to deny you coverage, or drop you as a customer altogether.  Those days are over.  And that’s the truth.  (Applause.)  That is the truth.

So for people without health insurance, they’re finally going to be able to get it.  For the vast majority of people who have health insurance that works, you can keep it.  For the fewer than 5 percent of Americans who buy insurance on your own, you will be getting a better deal.

So anyone peddling the notion that insurers are cancelling people’s plan without mentioning that almost all the insurers are encouraging people to join better plans with the same carrier, and stronger benefits and stronger protections, while others will be able to get better plans with new carriers through the marketplace, and that many will get new help to pay for these better plans and make them actually cheaper — if you leave that stuff out, you’re being grossly misleading, to say the least.

Of course the entire problem is that Obama knew his bold statement was false without several important caveats yet he refused to ever modify his promise to make it true. If Obama had used this language we heard yesterday the entire time there would never be an issue. Instead, Obama promised everyone they could keep their plan and that has been proven not to be true.

I love that Obama responded to his critics pointing out that his unequivocal promise was false by claiming it is grossly misleading to for his critics not to provide enough nuance for a complex issue. Complex issues do require nuance and I’m glad that Obama now finally admits it is unacceptable to leave out important caveats. It is frustrating when people tell you things that aren’t true because they think it’s okay to selectively leave out details, details that really matter.

If you live by overly simplified statements you will die by overly simplified statements.