2011-02-15
Explanation
This comic imagines what would happen if the President declared a "National Honesty Day" requiring all citizens to tell the truth. At first, the scheme appears to be a brilliant success: the government collects 200 billion dollars in unpaid taxes and uncovers 14,000 tons of drugs. The President is delighted, cackling about the windfall.
However, the plan backfires when an aide points out that citizens are now demanding all secret government information be declassified, since the honesty mandate applies to everyone -- including the government itself. Rather than comply, the President gleefully announces that "Honesty Day was yesterday!" revealing the whole exercise was a cynical one-way ploy. The comic satirizes political hypocrisy, showing that those in power are happy to enforce transparency on citizens but have no intention of being transparent themselves.