May not quite "always." Obama and some Dems extended the Bush tax because, at that time, polls showed that's what voters wanted.
But now Obama is pretending that he hates Goldman Sachs and GE, using them as examples why we should raise taxes on small businesses. They will keep talking about taxing "the rich," and it may help them in 2012 if the GOP is unable to refute their arguments, but the Bush tax cuts will not expire for a couple of years.
In a way, that's good for the Dems, because the tax cuts give them something to attack (e. g. lower taxes "cause deficits"), while at the same time, they mitigate some of their destructive policies.
Obama’s tax plans were thrown by the economy that did not improve as he was hoping. He wanted Cap and trade taxes which would have been purposely hidden. There was even some indication he wanted the middle class Bush tax cuts to expire, until the economy fizzed last summer.
Because the economy looked so crappy, and he was up for election in exactly two years I figured and posted (last summer) that Obama secretly wanted no tax increases even on the rich at that time, I went against the (Rush-bo) tide of opinion here and predicted he would sign an extension, with the custimary complaining to keep his liberal base .
What do the voters want? It depends on the poll questions. If you generically ask them if they want taxes to go up versus spending cuts you get different answer than asking ‘Would you rather raise taxes on the wealthly versus cut these specific programs?”
We all know that voters will poll for things that turn out bad for them and then get mad at those in power.