WASHINGTON — A chastened President Barack Obama today signaled a willingness to compromise with Republicans on tax cuts and energy policy, one day after his party lost control of the House and suffered Senate losses in midterm elections.

At a White House news conference the president said that when Congress returns, "my goal is to make sure we don't have a huge spike in taxes for middle class families." He made no mention of his insistence that tax cuts be permitted to expire on upper-income families, a position that put him in conflict with Republicans.

He also virtually abandoned his legislation — hopelessly stalled in the Senate — featuring economic incentives to reduce carbon emissions from power plants, vehicles and other sources.

"I'm going to be looking for other means of addressing this problem," he said. "Cap and trade was one way to skin the cat," he said, strongly implying there will be others.

In the campaign, Republicans slammed the bill as a "national energy tax" and jobs killer, and numerous Democrats sought to emphasize their opposition to the measure during their own re-election races.