It was probably smart to keep Petraeus from becoming an asset for the Republican party (he had demigod status, politically, until his scandal blew up).

The tax cuts were kept on lower income earners but raised on upper income voters. Sure, they could have just raised taxes on everyone--including the middle class and working poor--but how much good would that have really done?

The key was delinking raising taxes on the wealthy from raising them on the middle class. This amounted to a shift of wealth from the wealthy to everyone else.

If we need to raise taxes again, it will be on everyone--the wealthy included.