President Obama sent Republicans a message on Friday: I won. Get over it.

He didn’t put it quite that way, of course. Instead, he gave some formal, prepared remarks about economic policy—specifically, how he would like Congress to address expiration of the Bush tax cuts and the implementation of some automatic spending cuts, both of which are scheduled to take place on January 1. Dealing with this “fiscal cliff” will likely be the primary political preoccupation of the next few months. And, over the last few days, Republican leaders have made a series of statements about the tax portion of the debate, hinting at how they intend to approach negotiations.

Exactly what message the Republican are sending depends, in part, on which statements you consider and how you interpret them. House Speaker John Boehner, for example, has generally struck a conciliatory tone: "I don’t want to preclude anyone who might have a good idea of how we move forward," he said on Friday, not long before Obama spoke. But Boehner on Thursday told ABC's Diane Sawyer, "Raising tax rates is unacceptable. And frankly, it couldn’t even pass the House." Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been even more blunt. In a statement released to Breitbart News, McConnell said:

One issue I’ve never been conflicted about is taxes. I wasn’t sent to Washington to raise anybody’s taxes to pay for more wasteful spending and this election doesn’t change my principles. This election was a disappointment, without doubt, but let’s be clear about something: the House is still run by Republicans, and Republicans still maintain a robust minority in the Senate. I know some people out there think Tuesday’s results mean Republicans in Washington are now going to roll over and agree to Democrat demands that we hike tax rates before the end of the year. I’m here to tell them there is no truth to that notion whatsoever.

Boehner, at least, may be open to tax changes that raise revenue by closing loopholes, rather than raising rates. But, as the Washington Post's Suzy Khimm points out, loopholes alone can't raise that much revenue. And Boehner's ability to rally his caucus around a deal remains as questionable as ever. In other words, the Republican position doesn't seem much different than the one Republicans held in their last negotiation with Obama, during the debt ceiling debate in the summer of 2011.

Obama on Friday made clear he thinks circumstances have changed since then: