House Speaker John Boehner offered a cautious step toward federal budget negotiations Wednesday, saying Republicans are “willing to accept” the government bringing in more tax revenue, but only in certain ways, and if Democrats are “willing to reduce spending and shore up the entitlement programs that are the primary drivers of our debt.”

Boehner, R-West Chester Twp., made his remarks one day after an election that left the federal government in largely the same position it has been in for the past two gridlocked years – Democrat Barack Obama in the White House, with Democrats controlling the Senate and Republicans controlling the House.

“If there is a mandate in yesterday’s results, it is a mandate for us to find a way to work together on solutions to the challenges we face together as a nation,” Boehner said. “… Mr. President, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives stands ready to work with you to do what’s best for our country.”

But that won’t be easy, in large part because the two sides don’t agree on what’s best. Obama and Democrats on Capitol Hill want to let tax breaks for the richest Americans expire in 2013, and many have balked at cutbacks to Social Security, Medicare and other programs.

John Green, director of the Bliss Institute for Applied Politics at the University of Akron, said the election likely didn’t do much to alter the bargaining positions of the parties.

“I don’t see anything in the election results that is going to move anybody toward compromise,” Green said.

He added that any solution would likely come from leaders like Obama, Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., hashing out a deal and trying to sell it to their rank and file.

Boehner didn’t have to worry about his own election Tuesday, as he ran unopposed, winning his 12th congressional term. His district will change in 2013, adding all of Clark County and southwestern Butler County, while dropping a chunk of Montgomery County that included parts of Huber Heights, Riverside and Dayton. The district also includes Preble, Darke, Miami and part of Mercer counties.

“It’s time we raised the bar. The American people this week didn’t give us a mandate to do the simple thing; they elected us to lead,” Boehner said, adding that leaders had “punted” for years on big challenges.

Boehner’s two main points were the need to change the financial structure of entitlement programs and to reform the tax code to curb “special interest loopholes and deductions.”

He warned that there are ideas Republicans would not support — higher tax rates on small business, tax increases not paired with spending reductions, and cuts to defense spending rather than “common-sense cuts.” Asked to elaborate on common-sense cuts, Boehner’s office did not reply Wednesday.

Bryan Marshall, a political science professor at Miami University, said Boehner’s comments strike him as a smart way to set a starting point for negotiations, rather than draw a line in the sand.

Marshall said since Democrats will hold 55 seats in the Senate next year, Obama could form a fiscal plan and try to talk five Republican senators into joining, giving them a supermajority in the Senate, and boxing in Boehner and House Republicans.

Boehner ended his comments with a statement directly to Obama, saying, “Mr. President, this is your moment. We’re ready to be led, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans. … We want you to succeed.”

Marshall said he thought Boehner was inviting Obama to come up with another “grand bargain” fiscal proposal like the one the pair worked on last year. Green said the political angle is that Boehner is calling on Obama to take the first risk because he just won re-election.

“That’s part of the problem we’ve had in Washington for a number of years,” Green said. “The situation is so polarized that nobody wants to get out in front on an issue because they’re afraid that they’ll suffer political damage. There’s just a real reluctance for these leaders to take risks.”