Max Baucus: “I am sad, because I am thinking first and foremost of the children without health coverage today. Those children could…”

“I am sad, because I am thinking first and foremost of the children without health coverage today. Those children could have had health coverage tomorrow had the President signed this bill. For now, thanks to his veto, these children will continue to go without doctors' visits. They will go without the medicines they need to stay healthy. I have frustration, because we worked for months on a bipartisan Children's Health Insurance Program agreement in the Senate. The House wisely adopted it. It was passed by an overwhelming margin. It deserved better consideration by the President of the United States. Instead, the carefully crafted compromise that we sent to the White House became the subject of a campaign of misinformation. That campaign was designed to obscure the true help for families contained in our bill, and that is frustrating. There is anger as well, because that is what so many parents in my own State of Montana and all across this country are feeling, and are right to feel today.”