When both Biden and Obama were in the Senate, they opposed Bush/Republican tax cuts for the rich. In their campaign for the White House, they promised to let them expire. As they traveled the nation prior to the elections last month, they promised to do whatever it takes to make sure that there will be no bonus tax cut for millionaires and billionaires. But in the end, there was no hope for a veto, because they not only lobbied for it, but also threw in a $25 billion estate tax cut for 0.2% of the super rich, and raised taxes on 50 million of the poorest Americans. Now Joe says that things will be different in 2012. They’ll end it then. Sorry, Joe. I don’t believe you!

Vice President Joe Biden said on NBC’s "Meet the Press" Sunday that the compromise tax-and-unemployment benefits package that President Obama signed into law last week was a matter of pragmatism. The president chose to "compromise to save people who are drowning," Biden said to NBC’s David Gregory. "There’s people out there drowning. There are two million people this month that can’t afford to go get a Christmas tree, let alone buy any gifts, because their unemployment has run out…." Biden described Obama as "a progressive leader" who understands that politics is "all about the possible." Still thinks taxes too low for upper-income people The vice president said that he and Obama still believe that the lower 2001 tax rates for higher-income earners that Obama agreed to extend for two years are "morally troubling" to quote a phrase Obama used in his book, "The Audacity of Hope". But, Biden explained, "Life is a matter of really tough choices." Biden insisted that the president would come back in 2012 and make the case that the 2001 tax rates for upper-income people ought to be scrapped and that they ought to pay higher taxes. “We will be able to make the case much more clearly that spending $700 billion over 10 years to extend tax cuts for people whose income averages well over a million dollars does not make sense,” the vice president contended. He said the fiscal commission headed by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles had recently helped make that point in its call for deficit and debt reduction. He argued that economic growth is likely to be stronger in 2012 than today so a tax-and-spending accord of the kind Obama signed into law last week won’t be necessary… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <MSNBC>

First, there is no reason to believe that economic growth will be stronger in 2012. The Tax Capitulation Act gives the money that could have been spent on jobs creation to the rich instead. It is unlikely that there will be any more simulative spending in the next two years, because Republicans will be holding the purse in 2 1/2 weeks.

Second, common wisdom is right, for once, that giving in to terrorists makes them not only more likely to commit more terrorist acts, but also, more recalcitrant in negotiations. As the decision in 2012 comes right before a Presidential election, you may rest assured that Republicans will have taken hostages yet again, and that Obama and Biden will fear voter reaction enough to cave again, unless Obama has lost the nomination in a primary.