Durbin: Dems weighing healthcare strategy, but not starting over

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Sunday that Democrats needed to sit down to figure out how to push through healthcare reform, while firmly rejecting any notion that the process has not been bipartisan.

"We're now considering our strategy" after Sen.-elect Scott Brown's (R-Mass.) surprising win Tuesday took away the Democrats' supermajority, Durbin said on "Face the Nation."

That includes sitting down with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other leaders, Durbin said.

"But for those who say start over... I would just tell them if we do nothing the Medicare trust fund will be exhausted in seven years," Durbin said.

Democrats had aimed to get healthcare passed and signed by the time of President Barack Obama's first State of the Union address, which is this Wednesday.

"I'm not going to give you a deadline" for the renewed effort by Dems, Durbin said, adding that "healthcare is one of the greatest threats to the future of our economy."

He rejected the notion that Republicans weren't part of the process, saying "to suggest that we have closed the door to them is not a proper statement of what's happpened."

"...The door is always open on the Republican side," Durbin said.

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