John Reynolds Staff Writer @JohnReynoldsSJR

While they have different political opinions, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, agreed that the time has come for less rhetoric and more bipartisanship in Washington.

Their comments came Saturday outside Grace United Methodist Church, 1612 E. Capitol Ave., after the two talked to the Springfield Ministerial Alliance about health care. The meeting was not open to the media.

Congressman Davis and I just had a debate, and we didnt break out into a fight. It was civilized, and I hope, gentlemanly. We have to encourage more people to do the same, Durbin said.

Davis had similar comments.

I hope this sends a message to everyone that we can disagree on policy, we can have our debates and we can walk away, shake hands, pat each other on the back and still be friends, Davis said.

When it came to the actual issue of health care, the two lawmakers had different approaches. The House of Representatives already has passed a health care bill, and the Senate is working on a bill of its own.

Durbin said the measure that passed the House is opposed by the Illinois Hospital Association, doctors and nurses, community health care clinics, pediatricians, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association and AARP.

I rely on the advice of the experts in this area. (The opposition) tells me there is something fundamentally wrong with what passed in the House of Representatives, Durbin said. Congressman Davis and I debated it this morning. I want to make sure that at the end of the day we have more people covered with health insurance in this country and that its affordable health insurance for those who are arent wealthy and dont have the resources to pay on their own.

Davis said something has to be done to change the current system.

The bottom line is, doing nothing is unacceptable to me as a policy maker, Davis said. As a matter of fact, the system we have in place has failed 29 million Americans who still dont have health care coverage even though the law requires them to. Thirty-one million more, including one of the participants here today, have coverage that they cant afford to use. That to me is a system that is failing 20 percent of all Americans. When that happens, we have to fix it.

Contact John Reynolds: john.reynolds@sj-r.com, 788-1524, twitter.com/JohnReynoldsSJR.

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Sen. Durbin, Rep. Davis have 'civilized' talk about health care - The State Journal-Register