WASHINGTON (AP) — The top Republican in the Senate said Sunday that a controversial House Medicare plan is "on the table" as President Barack Obama and his GOP rivals wrestle over budget cuts to enact this summer.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on NBC's "Meet The Press" that he supports the controversial plan by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to transform Medicare into a voucher-like system in which future beneficiaries — those 54 and younger — would get subsidies to buy healthinsurance rather than have the government directly pay their doctor and hospital bills.

The House plan has come under a sustained assault from Democrats, who charge it would "end Medicare as we know it." Democrats successfully used the charge is winning a House special in a strongly Republican district in upstate New York last week.

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