'We’re ready to be led, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans,' Boehner said. Boehner: 'Ready to be led' on taxes

Speaker John Boehner hasn’t quit President Barack Obama.

With Mitt Romney still picking up the pieces of his battered campaign in Boston, the speaker began readying his colleagues and official Washington that the House Republican Conference is ready to negotiate with Obama to reform the nation’s Tax Code and entitlement structure, a move that could set the tone for months of hand-wringing, but ultimately intense negotiations.


And in what’s sure to become hotly discussed in conservative circles, Boehner said he’s willing to accept new federal revenues from a “fairer, simpler, cleaner Tax Code.” Such talk of new revenues may cause some on the right to recoil but has long been a part of Boehner’s position.

In an 11-minute speech in the historic Rayburn Room on the House side of the Capitol, Boehner expressed hope about a deal with Obama, but his words also reflect private concerns about being outmaneuvered by the newly reelected president. It was the opening gambit for an all-consuming debate over deficits, debts, taxes and entitlements that will stretch well into next year.

“This will take time,” Boehner said, reading from a teleprompter. “But if we’re all striving for a solution, I’m confident we can get there. Mr. President, this is your moment. We’re ready to be led, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans. We want you to lead — not as a liberal or a conservative, but as the president of the United States of America. We want you to succeed. Let’s challenge ourselves to find the common ground that has eluded us.”

Boehner likened the deal he’s seeking to the 1986 agreement between Speaker Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan, and he mentioned the two figures by name.

And the White House is eyeing a possible meeting next week between Obama and congressional leaders, although nothing has been scheduled yet.

But to show the gulf between the two sides, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday said he wouldn’t touch Social Security — one of the entitlements Republicans have suggested tweaking — and he wants to raise revenue by letting top tax rates expire.

“People making all this money have to contribute a little bit more,” Reid said in an afternoon news conference at the Capitol. “And all the exit polling, all the polling we’ve done — the vast majority of the American people support that, including rich people.”

That position is a nonstarter for Boehner — he’s opposed to raising tax rates. He’s looking for a “down payment” during the lame duck to help bridge the gap to a large-scale compromise that would come together in 2013.

“The question we should be asking is not ‘Which taxes should I raise to get more revenue?’ but rather ‘Which reforms can we agree on that will get our economy moving again?’” Boehner said.

The flurry of action comes as the makeup of Congress comes into sharper view. Hill leaders are positioning themselves for the eight-week debate over income tax rates that expire at year’s end and automatic spending cuts that will hit the Pentagon and domestic programs in the beginning of 2013 unless Washington intervenes.

Boehner’s message, he said, was “not one of confrontation, but of conviction.” But it’s obvious the two sides are offering sharply different interpretations of the mandate delivered by the electorate.

Reid’s view is bolstered by Obama’s victory. Obama campaigned on allowing rates on the rich to snap back to near 40 percent.

Boehner gathered House Republicans on a conference call Wednesday and said the mandate was to “find common ground.” He told his colleagues, according to a source on the call, that he congratulated Obama on a “narrow” victory.

But Boehner’s speech was laced with careful language that reflects the fears of House Republican leadership.

For example, House Republicans are privately fearful of their leadership being invited to Camp David or an Air Force base to hatch an agreement. They see it as stagecraft and antithetical to a solution.

So Boehner said tax and entitlement reform “will likely require weeks of work rather than a weekend of photo-ops.”

“It won’t happen around a campfire at Camp David,” Boehner said, “in a secret room at an Air Force base or — as much as I’d like it — over 18 holes of golf.”

Boehner vowed that Congress is “closer than many think to the critical mass needed legislatively to get tax reform done.” Leadership has not whipped anything of this nature, as there are no specifics.

Obama weighed in before Boehner’s remarks, telling the speaker, Reid, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that he wanted to cut middle-class taxes and reduce the nation’s deficit in a balanced way — a position that’s different than what Republicans are advocating.

Boehner’s assumption rests on Obama and Democrats’ desire to reform entitlements and lower tax rates — a risky supposition considering their electoral triumph Tuesday.

Of course, Boehner’s idea of revenue is in stark contrast to what Democrats are seeking. Republicans have generally sought to measure budgetary impact of policies by using dynamic scoring — a tactic that takes economic growth into account. Democrats generally say it’s too imprecise a tactic.

But there’s no question there’s a long list of things that need to get done.

In addition to income tax rates and massive spending cuts — a vestige of Washington’s last failure to rein in the debt — there are a number of other issues that need to be resolved.

The farm bill needs renewal, as does the formula by which the federal government reimburses doctors who treat Medicare patients. The nation will reach its borrowing limit in the next four months and the government is only funded until March.

Newly elected lawmakers are also starting to weigh in.

Sen.-elect Tim Kaine, a Democrat who won in Virginia, said on MSNBC on Wednesday morning that he would keep tax rates steady on everyone who makes up to $500,000 — his party has used the $250,000 threshold.

“Fix Medicare so we can negotiate for prescription drug pricing and take tax subsidies away from the big five oil companies, who are incredibly profitable,” Kaine said, laying out elements of a plan he’d like to see passed into law.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, a leading Democrat from New York, said the nation bargained for divided government — and that comes with mixed priorities. And he said Obama must now ratchet up public pressure by delivering a series of speeches signaling that Democrats are ready to compromise and that Republicans must be flexible, too, in order to avert a fiscal wreck.

“The public stood for two things,” Schumer told POLITICO. “They stood for a bargain, and that’s why the House is still Republican. But they also stood for the Democratic position that we need revenues, particularly on the higher-income people. And it’s witnessed by the fact [that] in all the debates, Romney ran away from the hard-line Republican position.”

Schumer added: “The question is will the leadership of the Republican Party — I don’t just mean McConnell and Boehner — realize the path they’ve taken doesn’t work. They cannot keep obstructing even though that is the wish of the more extreme folks. And that’s the $64,000 question.”

Manu Raju, Tim Mak and Carrie Budoff Brown contributed to this report.