"You know, they proposed tax increases in the farm bill, the energy bill, the small business bill and of course," the children's health bill, he said of Democrats. "They haven't seen a bill they could not solve without shoving a tax hike into it. In other words, they believe in raising taxes, and we don't. The vetoed bill would have brought the number of insured children to 10 million. The bill covered kids from families who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private health insurance. The estimated $35 billion cost of the measure would be covered by higher taxes on tobacco products, including 61 cents per pack of marlboro. Several officials said that in the meeting with Bush, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas asked a question about the president's intentions with the health insurance measure. They said the president responded that he wants his budget director, Jim Nussle, to identify spending cuts to offset the cost of any measure. They also said Bush appeared to extend his no-tax-increase pledge to other measures. They quoted him as saying that if he signed the tobacco tax increase, it would be difficult to draw the line later on other bills.