Republican leadership in the House has apparently already conceded the White House. Before the counting is even done, before Mitt Romney's campaign is declared dead, they're threatening President Obama over taxes.
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.