Perhaps, but again, almost no one on either side in Washington wants to raise taxes on the lower/middle classes. The dispute, of course, is that one side wants to decouple it from the tax cuts for the wealthy, and the other side positions the tax cuts as an all-or-nothing package. So really, it comes down to this: Does the party that wants all the tax cuts made permanent willingly block the middle class tax cut extension -- effectively raising lower and middle class taxes -- unless it also gets the tax cuts on the wealthy? (Rhetorical question, obviously.) It's a political gamble, to be sure.
Perhaps, but I still think they do it. Kicking the can is pretty much the only thing R's and D's agree on these days and it's the only compromise they seem to know how to make. And in reality, I think that's the worst thing they can do -- the economy and the financial markets don't need the continued uncertainty that comes with kicking the can and merely deferring yet another permanent decision.