Dems on vote trading on health care: We have made so many deals that we can't make any more without interfering with the deals that are already made

So much for Obama's promise to cut out special deals in the health care bill. There are so many deals already made that they can't do any more without interfering with the existing deals.

House Democratic leaders are closing down their trading post on the health care bill. Party leaders are beginning to spread the word to rank-and-file lawmakers that they won’t be changing the text of a carefully negotiated “reconciliation” bill to win votes at this point because they can’t undo deals that already have been hammered out, Democratic sources say.

“What they say is it was a tri-party negotiation with the House, Senate and White House,” said one source familiar with the decision.

“No horse trading,” said another source. “They are closed for business.”

That could be bad news for any number of lobbyists and outside groups who have been working to shift the legislation in their favor. For example, few expect the bill will include the “public option” that liberal groups have been pushing for. The decision to preclude any changes means those groups are likely to be disappointed.

Still, this doesn’t mean party leaders can’t or won’t court votes with the lure of provisions in future bills or campaign help from the president, but it indicates that House leaders plan to go to the floor with the reconciliation bill they have rather than making last-minute changes at the Rules Committee to attract more support. . . . .