To bomb Republicans into submission on raising taxes on the top earners. Check this out from Patty Murray:

"So if we can't get a good deal, a balanced deal that calls on the wealthy to pay their fair share, then I will absolutely continue this debate into 2013 rather than lock in a long-term deal this year that throws middle-class families under the bus," she said in an address Monday afternoon at the Brookings Institution. Murray is head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the campaign arm for Senate Democrats. 

In the remarks, Murray explained that if all the tax cuts expire, then that will diminish the GOP argument that the Democratic plan is tantamount to a tax hike -- because come 2013, any change to the tax code would be a tax cut.  

"We will have a new fiscal and political reality," Murray said. "If the Bush tax cuts expire, every proposal will be a tax cut proposal and the pledge (to not raise taxes) will no longer keep Republicans boxed in and unable to compromise. 

So, let the current rate expire, which results in a tax increase, so you can now reframe bringing back what will then be the old rates, as "a tax cut." So she's convinced Republicans are just "boxed in" by a no tax increase pledge, not by their beliefs. So when it becomes a matter of "not cutting taxes," they'll be able to live with that. What word do you use when cynical isn't strong enough?