Most if not all governments also play this card. Fictional example: "we'll raise the tax to 10%" sh-t hits the fan as expected "after careful considerations we'll "only" raise it to 8%" everyone is cheerful thinking they made decision-makers change their mind. A similar version: when they promise to do something knowing it's impossible to achieve, then sell it as "they don't let us do it but trust us we'd have done it otherwise". All in all, the shocking thing is how effective this is despite having been in practice for (probably) centuries and centuries.