(MCT) — WASHINGTON — The Senate’s top Republican suggested specific cuts to popular safety-net entitlement programs — Medicare and Social Security — as the kind of proposals his party wants on the table in talks with the White House over the year-end budget crisis.

Negotiations have hit a stalemate, but Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, provided the first GOP counteroffer to President Barack Obama’s push for higher taxes on the wealthy. McConnell said Republicans would like to increase the Medicare eligibility age and ask wealthier Americans to pay higher Medicare premiums. He also suggested paring back the cost-of-living increases given to Social Security beneficiaries, a nonstarter for many Democrats.