Durbin: The White House has taken raising Medicare’s eligibilty age off the table

“I was told that it is not on the table from the White House,” Durbin said, “raising the Medicare eligibility age.”

Durbin, the Senate’s second-ranking Democratic leader, made his comments to reporters after a leadership press conference on the “fiscal cliff” talks.

A group of liberal Democrats has said in recent days that raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67, as President Obama mulled during deficit-reduction talks with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in the summer of 2011, would cause them to vote against any year-end deal.

Obama did not rule out the possibility of raising the eligibility age in an interview this week with ABC’s Barbara Walters.