The Eternal Bush Tax Cuts of the Barackian Mind?

Obama apologists are pointing to the planned expiration of the Bush tax cuts  in 2013 as reason to believe that the president will follow through on his much-vaunted balanced approach to match revenues with cuts.  By simply letting them expire as planned, he will not have to engage in another fight with the GOP, as conventional wisdom tells it.  But here's what he said in his radio address today:

We need to extend tax cuts for working and middle class families so you have more money in your paychecks next year.  That would help millions of people to make ends meet.  And that extra money for expenses means businesses will have more customers, and will be in a better position to hire.  

It looks to be shaping up into the same-ole same-ole ploy of the president being held hostage on the tax cuts.  Again, he will have to "cave" to Republicans' demands to extend the cuts for the millionaires and billionaires too, in order to "save the middle class".

And there are more hints of No New Taxes for corporations and his continuing nonsensical belief in the confidence fairy, despite the Wall Street plunge and the S&P downgrade:

So our job right now has to be doing whatever we can to help folks find work; to help create the climate where a business can put up that job listing; where incomes are rising again for people. We’ve got to rebuild this economy and the sense of security that middle class has felt slipping away for years.  And while deficit reduction has to be part of our economic strategy, it’s not the only thing we have to do.

Climate change the corporatist Obama way is to reduce pesky regulations, maybe repatriate those overseas profits for little to no taxation, and never, ever utter the anti-Norquistian "R" word -- Revenue: 

We’ve got to cut the red tape that stops too many inventors and entrepreneurs from quickly turning new ideas into thriving businesses – which holds back our whole economy.

On another, more realistic note, at least one Democrat is calling it as he sees it.  Of course, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio is being redistricted out of a job, so he has nothing to lose by speaking truth to power. Thanks to Jay-Ottawa for this link to his radio interview with Truthdig.  From the transcript:

Dennis Kucinich: Well, I think you have to first of all define terms. I don’t know if you can define what it means to be a Democrat anymore—or, for that matter, Republican, or labels like liberal conservative. I think it’s an appropriate time for all of us to begin to question the utility of labels which seem to defy the performance of public officials. And what’s conservative, for example, about extending the Bush tax cuts—which by the way will cost, through 2020, $2.56 trillion—what’s conservative about blowing billions of dollars on wars? On the other hand, what does it mean to be a Democrat if you’re willing to put social programs on a chopping block—put the cornerstone of the Democratic Party’s social ethic, which includes Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, on a chopping block—not come up with a massive jobs program, knowing that signing this deal would limit your ability to create jobs—what does that mean? What does it mean to be a Democrat? What does that mean? So we have to define terms. We’re trapped in a system where we somehow believe that all we have to do is change the players and we’re going to get a different outcome. Maybe not. Because within the logic of this system, now supported or buttressed by Citizens United and Buckley v. Valeo, is a system of corporate governance which impresses itself upon the people of the United States for its own benefit, to the people’s detriment, and has helped to create in government very efficient mechanisms to accelerate the wealth of the nation upward.
.