In today's Washington Post, columnist Robert Samuelson misrepresented President Obama's approach to fixing our nation's deficit, which includes spending cuts in addition to tax increases on the wealthiest Americans.

Samuelson claimed that Obama has misled the country “by implying that making millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share will solve much of” the deficit problem. He then attempted to discredit the argument that raising taxes on the rich would close the deficit.

But Samuelson is misrepresenting Obama's proposal for balancing the budget. Far from proposing tax increases alone, “Obama's plan for reducing the deficit would cut $2.50 in spending allowances for every $1 of increased tax revenue,” as CBS reported on September 9. Republicans, however, have rejected that proposal.

Obama has proposed combined spending cuts and tax increases for the wealthiest Americans for years.  In fact, some progressives have criticized Obama's budget proposals for cutting spending too much.