Pelosi: No Horse-Trading

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is playing hardball with the health-care bill. She’s announced there will no last-minute wheeling and dealing, and no changes to the language of the bill to convince fence-sitters to vote “yes.” The move may hurt her chance to receive the 216 votes needed to pass the bill, typically wrangled through a series of lengthy negotiations, but sends a strong message to anti-abortion Democrats. Three Democrats who backed the initial House package have told the media their support would be lost if the abortion language doesn’t change. So far, Pelosi isn’t budging. “What we’re talking about here is passing this bill,” said Pelosi. “It’s a bill about health care, health-insurance reform. It’s not about abortion; it’s not about immigration…”