That's its literal meaning. As a figure of speech, it's something used to cover up a secret project or to mask something or to serve as a pretense for something. In other words, what you see is not what you get. 

In a related way, there's something in language that I call a verbal stalking-horse. It's a word or phrase used to misdirect attention from what the speaker is doing, much as a magician uses props or hand gestures to misdirect the audience's attention from what he's doing. 

That being the case, as you might expect, politicians are fond of using verbal stalking horses. 

Take the word “business,” for example. 

When members of Congress want to increase tax revenues without letting on to the voters that it's their taxes that are going to go up, they make a big to-do about raising taxes on business only. 

But business doesn't pay taxes. Individuals do. And that means you and me. 

And “business” is only one of the verbal stalking horses that politicians are fond of using. Some of the others are “the American people,” “fair share,” “the poor,” “Wall Street,” “Society,” “the disadvantaged,” and “the Founding Fathers.” 

Perhaps that's what Edmund Burke meant when he said that the people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. 

But we, the people, are not helpless in the face of such political chicanery. All we have to do to put a stop to it is to make a mental note of any office-holder's identity who makes a habit of concealing what he or she does behind verbal stalking horses and then vote accordingly in the next election. 

Think about it.