A polite word for what President Obama is being with his claims about millionaires and taxes is “disingenuous.'' A more straightforward term would be lying.

Neither the Associated Press nor the Wall Street Journal called him that yesterday, but both reported the facts that the President is grossly and willfully distorting.

“Middle-class families shouldn't pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires,” Obama said Monday. “That's pretty straightforward. It's hard to argue against that.”

AP: “The data tell a different story. On average, the wealthiest people in America pay a lot more taxes than the middle class or the poor, according to private and government data. They pay at a higher rate, and as a group, they contribute a much larger share of the overall taxes collected by the federal government.''

Wall Street Journal: “In 2008, the last year for which such data are available, the IRS reports that those who made more than $1 million in adjusted gross income paid an average income tax rate of 23.3 percent''

People making between $500,000 and $1 million paid slightly more, at 24.1 percent. But both groups were paying more than twice the 8.9 percent average rate paid by those earning between $50,000 and $100,000, the Journal wrote.

Obama knows this. But he is desperate. He doesn't know or really care how capitalism works and he is hoping that he can fool enough people into falling for his class warfare tricks to somehow win the next election. If he does, we will all pay the price.