President Obama hosts congressional leaders at the White House today for talks on raising the national debt ceiling. According to the Washington Post, Obama is now backing a plan that would impose significant cuts to Medicare spending and retirement benefits under Social Security. A Democratic official said the White House recognizes a consensus to now tackle “entitlement reform” in part by slashing social safety-net programs because “these moments come along at most once a decade.” Obama’s proposal of new public spending cuts would come in return for Republican backing of new tax hikes on corporations and wealthy households. At a Town Hall-style event with the social network site Twitter, Obama criticized Republicans for opposing tax increases in talks so far.

President Obama: “Never in our history has the United States defaulted on its debt. The debt ceiling should not be something that is used as a gun against the heads of the American people to extract tax breaks for corporate jet owners or oil and gas companies that are making billions of dollars because the price of gasoline has gone up so high.”