WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner urged Congress' deficit "supercommittee" on Thursday to lay the groundwork for a broad overhaul of the U.S. tax code, rejecting Democrats' talk of tax increases but leaving open the possibility the government's take could rise as a result.

Tax increases "are not a viable option" for the committee, Boehner declared in a speech to the Washington Economic Club, ruling out many of the proposals that President Barack Obama is expected to forward to the 12-member panel next week, including some that are part of his major jobs proposal.

Boehner made his remarks as White House officials disclosed that Obama intends to travel to Cincinnati next week as he campaigns for public support of his $447 billion proposal to cut into the nation's 9.1 percent unemployment rate. The political symbolism of the site was unmistakable — an overcrowded bridge that links Boehner's Ohio with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell's Kentucky, a span the president has cited as an example of the repair work his jobs program would make possible.