Pete Stark: “I am not proud of the bill or the process. I would say to my distinguished ranking member from the Ways and Means…”

“I am not proud of the bill or the process. I would say to my distinguished ranking member from the Ways and Means Committee that they were accorded every opportunity at every point to participate in this bill, and they know it. They were not excluded until they decided they did not want to help us pass the CHAMP bill, which was a far better bill. At this point, I have to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who have helped us pass a bill that would have added a million additional children. It was a far better bill for children. It would have expanded coverage to legal immigrant children. It was better also for senior citizens. But I also have to thank our leadership and the commitment of Speaker Pelosi to suggest that when we come back, after, as we expect this bill will be vetoed, we will remember that there were a tremendous number of proposals in here which would have helped not only children, but seniors, financial help for low-income seniors, mental health parity for Medicare, improved Medicare benefits and health benefits, preventive care, rural health parity, consumer protections in part D, improved dialysis procedures, protection of Medicare from privatization, and the preservation of the Medicare system by doing away with the excessive spending in Medicare Advantage.”