In fact, there has never any reason to believe otherwise -
his pre-election rhetoric to the contrary.

I don't see him or the democrats having the will or even the desire to let the Bush cuts expire, and then mount a serious effort to enact tax cuts for the middle class.

Frankly, I don't think they are any more interested in the welfare of the middle class (forget the working poor - they're not even in this scenario) than the Republicans.

Do they even read what they write?

"And even on one of the left's pet issues which Mr. Obama aggressively and successfully pursued - health care - people in the the left wing of his party remain disappointed that he did not push harder for a public option.
Moderate Democrats, who were also a key part of the coalition that helped sweep Mr. Obama into office, are openly worried that the liberal carping might have an effect on the president and the administration.
In a memo released before the election, Third Way, a middle-of-the-road think tank with ties to the White House, predicted that liberals would try to pull Mr. Obama in their direction after the election. But they warned that doubling down on liberal policies would have dire consequences for the Democratic party." [emphasis mine]

What she doesn't understand is if the federal government doesn't start stimulating we will erode until there is nothing left.  Therefore, those people who have the middle-class tax cut now will really be up sh_t's creek.  

I don't want to see those middle class tax cuts go either BUT given the choice of keeping the $3 trillion plus of Bush tax cuts including the zero Estate Tax to keep the middle class tax cuts, I say let it go and use the money to create jobs so we can get rid of most of the Earned Income Credit, as people will be working full time and making better salaries.  We need the feds now more than ever.

Remember how the Republicans whined about our high corporate tax and waxed poetic about how we should have a tax structure like Ireland has, well look below where it got that country.

Where I come from, they call that a pattern, and we can either learn from it, or persist in the belief that someday maybe he'll actually act the part of a Democratic president that, up until January, had a majority in both Houses of Congress.

He's out of excuses, as far as I'm concerned, and it pains me that now that there will be a GOP House, we can expect two years of hearing, "we didn't have any choice - we had to work with them if we wanted to..." as the reason why we'll be taking a hard right turn.

let the republicans try and stop it.

1.  No one seems to mention the obvious elephant/donkey in the room.  Nearly all of Congress and the Prez fall into the 'increase taxes' bracket.  Why don't they change the cut off from 250k to a million, then most of them won't be affected in any meaningful way, and selling tax increases on millionaires is a no-brainier.

2.  If Obama caves, and I believe he will, he is pretty much guaranteed a loss in 2012.  No one will care about who did what and how in 2012, all they will see is at least another couple trillion added to the national debt under his watch.  The republicans will package and brand it as Obama's albatross.

The Deficit Commission chairmen's proposal is "breathtaking"

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- President Barack Obama declared Friday that his "number one priority" is preserving tax cuts for the middle class, and sharply denied that comments by his senior adviser David Axelrod suggest that his administration is about to cave in to Republicans who also want to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.

"That is the wrong interpretation because I haven't had a conversation with Democratic and Republican leaders," Obama said of a Huffington Post article suggesting that in advance of negotiations with lawmakers next week, the White House has calculated that giving in on tax cuts for the rich is the only way to get the middle class cuts extended too.

"Here's the right interpretation -- I want to make sure that taxes don't go up for middle class families starting on January 1st," Obama said at a news conference at the conclusion of the G-20 Summit here. "That is my number one priority for those families and for our economy. I also believe that it would be fiscally irresponsible for us to permanently extend the high income tax cuts. I think that would be a mistake, particularly when we've got our Republican friends saying that their number 1 priority is making sure that we are dealing with our debt and our deficit."

Obama would not tip his hand on the discussions coming when Congress returns to work for a lame-duck session next week.

"I'm not going to negotiate here in Seoul, my job is to negotiate back in Washington with Democratic and Republican leaders," he said.