WASHINGTON President Joe Biden on Wednesday signaled a willingness to accept changes to welfare work requirements to win Republican approval of a debt limit increase.

I voted years ago for the work requirements that exist. But its possible that there could be a few others, he said during a brief, hastily arranged news conference just before his departure to Japan for the G-7 summit.

He added, though, that he would reject any work requirement thats going to impact on medical health needs of people, and said the changes could not be anything of any consequence.

Biden has stated for months that he would not negotiate with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and his caucus over the debt ceiling, and he made the point Wednesday that he is still not negotiating over the debt ceiling, even as he implicitly negotiated over the debt ceiling.

To be clear, this negotiation is about the outlines of what the budget will look like, not about whether or not we are going to, in fact, pay our debts, he said.