News That No One Saw Coming:

House Republicans are sending a stark message to the White House: If President Barack Obama pushes for tax increases during the lame-duck session, it would ruin his chances for a productive second term.

Republicans aren’t conceding that Obama will win Tuesday, but they’re warning that allowing tax rates on high-income Americans to increase at the end of the year — as Obama and Hill Democrats have proposed — will set a bad tone that would complicate major deal making in the 113th Congress.

“Poisoning the well right out of the gate makes no sense if the goal is a productive second term,” said one senior House GOP leadership aide.

The warning shows that Republicans are in a defensive posture already regarding the impending negotiations over taxes and spending that loom during the lame duck. And they fear Obama would use his reelection to justify an upper income tax increase.

Senate Democrats, who are all but certain to keep control of the upper chamber, will force separate votes on retaining current tax rates for incomes below $250,000 while increasing rates for higher-income earners — “decoupling,” in Washington speak. Republicans privately have been talking about $1 million as a new tax threshold for the wealthy, but Democrats are cool to that.

Democrats plan to use the new revenue from a tax increase — nearly $1 trillion — toward blunting automatic domestic and Pentagon spending cuts that kick in on Jan. 2. Canceling the first year of defense cuts is a top priority for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Republican leaders, as well as Defense Department officials.

“Same old story,” said David Krone, chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), characterizing the Republican position to POLITICO. “We haven’t even had the election yet and already the Republicans are drawing a line in the sand. It’s really sad to see.”

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