While members of Congress will finally have a chance to get back to work following Tuesday's elections, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, does not expect to be able to reach a grand bargain on the upcoming fiscal cliff during the lame-duck session.
Speaking to CNN, Boehner suggested that Congress might be able to reach an agreement on a temporary measure to postpone the looming tax increases and spending cuts.
"Lame-duck Congresses aren't known for doing big things and probably shouldn't do big things, so I think the best you can hope for is a bridge," Boehner said in an interview with CNN at a sports bar in Ohio.
Without action by Congress, the end of the year will see the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts as well as the automatic spending cuts that were part of last summer's debt ceiling deal.
Boehner, who was campaigning in his home state for the Republican presidential ticked, said he expected "some kind [of] temporary push back of the sequester."
"I would think that would be the best you can hope for, and even that is going to be very difficult to do," Boehner said.
The sequester refers to the billions in automatic spending cuts that are due to go into effect due to Congress' inability to reach an agreement on addressing the deficit.
While President Barack Obama has predicted that he could reach a "grand bargain" with Congress that includes $2.50 in spending cuts for every $1 in new revenue, Boehner told CNN that the president's proposal is not "big enough."
"I made it clear that any increase in the debt limit - the cuts and reforms have to be greater than the increase in the debt limit. How many times do we want to deal with the debt limit over the next four years?" Boehner said.
Boeing went on to call himself a "reasonable, responsible guy" but said he needs people in the Senate and in the White House "who will work with me."
"So if there's a status quo election, there's going to be an awful lot of responsibility on the president to finally lead instead of squandering his opportunity at being president," he added.
In a separate interview with Politico on Monday, Boehner made remarks suggesting that he would not support any deficit reduction agreement that includes raising taxes, even on those making more than $1 million a year.
"We're not raising taxes on small-business people," Boehner told Politico during an interview in Columbus, Ohio. "Ernst and Young has made this clear: It's going to cost our economy 700,000 jobs. Why in the world would we want to do that?"
Boehner's hard-line stance on taxes reflects his belief that Republicans will retain control of the House of Representatives. At the same time, he shrugged off the indication that an Obama victory would be a mandate to raise taxes on upper-income Americans.
"Listen, our majority is going to get reelected," Boehner said. "We'll have as much of a mandate as he will — if that happens — to not raise taxes. He knows what we can do and what we can't do — I've been very upfront with him about it going back over the last year and a half."
Boehner's remarks suggest that an Obama victory coupled with the GOP retaining control of the House could lead to continued gridlock on Capitol Hill.
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