House Speaker John Boehner: "Raising tax rates is unacceptable" WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Friday is to press for the end of Bush-era tax cuts on taxable household incomes over $250,000, an aide said. The repeated call to end the tax breaks as part of a package of actions needed to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, which could plunge the economy back into recession, was expected to be part of Obama's first public comments since his re-election. His remarks, to be delivered in the White House East Room at 1:05 p.m., will focus on "the action we need to take to keep our economy growing and reduce our deficit," the White House said Thursday night. Obama feels bolstered by his re-election victory, senior campaign strategist David Axelrod said. "Hopefully people will read those results and read them as a vote for cooperation and will come to the table," Axelrod told MSNBC. And obviously everyone's going to have to come with an open mind to these discussions. But he added, "If the attitude is that nothing happened on Tuesday, that would be unfortunate." House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Thursday House Republicans remained adamantly opposed to raising tax rates but would be willing to talk about it. "Of course we'll talk about it," he told ABC News. We talk about all kinds of things we may disagree on. I'm the most reasonable, responsible person here in Washington. The president knows it. He knows that he and I can work together. The election's over. Now it's time to get to work. But when told Election Day exit polls found 60 percent of U.S. voters agreeing with Obama's proposal to raise taxes on the wealthiest taxpayers, Boehner insisted the idea was insupportable. Raising tax rates is unacceptable. And, frankly, it couldn't even pass the House. I'm not sure it could pass the Senate," he said. Obama spoke with Boehner by phone Wednesday about the need to reach a budget compromise in Congress' lame-duck session starting next week, the White House said. "The president reiterated his commitment to finding bipartisan solutions to reduce our deficit in a balanced way, cut taxes for middle-class families and small businesses, and create jobs," a White House read-out of the call said. The president said he believed that the American people sent a message in [Tuesday's] election that leaders in both parties need to put aside their partisan interests and work with common purpose to put the interests of the American people and the American economy first. After the call, Boehner said, "A 'balanced' approach isn't balanced if it means higher tax rates on the small businesses that are key to getting our economy moving again." Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who won re-election Tuesday, told The New York Times many Senate Republicans were now willing to agree to a deal that raises more revenue through an overhaul of the tax code. He said additional revenue must be generated by taxation, not just economic growth. "The conditions are there to act," Corker said. I think the environment is different now. He said he was circulating a draft plan to overhaul the tax code and entitlements and had met with 25 senators from both parties since the election. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday he could accept a tax plan that leaves the top tax rate at 35 percent, provided loophole closings in a tax-code overhaul hit the rich, not the middle class. Schumer previously insisted he would accept nothing short of a return to the top tax rate of 39.6 percent from the Clinton administration. "If you kept them at 35, it's still much harder to do," Schumer said. But obviously there is push and pull, and there are going to be compromises. The Congressional Budget Office Thursday predicted the fiscal cliff would drive the U.S. economy back into recession next year and push the jobless rate to 9.1 percent by the end of 2013. The CBO said the economy would shrink 0.5 percent in 2013 if Congress fails to avert the cliff's automatic Jan. 2 $700 billion tax hikes and spending cuts put in motion by an earlier deficit agreement. The International Monetary Fund said even an 11th-hour compromise could affect global economic confidence and growth. Going over the cliff would have "large international spillovers," the IMF said, adding, "A last-minute deal that relies on suboptimal fixes or largely 'kicks the can down the road' may ultimately prove harmful." The U.S. federal budget deficit for the 2012 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, was $1.089 trillion, $208 billion less than the 2011 deficit, the Treasury Department said last month. Since 1970, the federal government has run a deficit every year except 1998-2001, contributing to a total debt of $16.1 trillion as of Sept.