Mitch McConnell working his voodoo on Rob Portman.

The wheels are falling off this thing we call Congress over Trumpcare, and it's all going to come down to whether anyone can trust Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan. Which means we, as a nation, are fucked. At the lunch today in which Senate Republicans were supposed to be writing the next iteration of the bill—the one that leadership said would pass tonight—the discussion instead was "focused on whether they can be assured House won't pass skinny, will conference. Senate doesn't want it to become law."

Just let that sink in: they don't want the bill they are about to pass—the bill that they promised was coming for the last fucking seven years—to become law. From what it looks like, McConnell made that promise to them.

x I will support legislation to move this process to a House-Senate conference because I believe we need to repeal and replace Obamacare. — Rob Portman (@senrobportman) July 27, 2017

Other senators are making big noises about making sure that the bill they all apparently intend to pass does not become law. Sen. Lindsey Graham says he'll work with the House Freedom Caucus to make sure that it doesn't happen—because he trusts the House maniacs more than McConnell (and as if the maniacs would ever, ever work in good faith with Lindsey Graham). Arizona Sen. John McCain says he needs more than a promise from the House, which is pretty meaningless. If McConnell "promises" him anything, McCain will go along with it just so they can get to his pet project, the defense authorization bill. McConnell will make and break that promise without a single look back. They all know it, but they're all pretending otherwise.

Meanwhile, the House is preparing to—guess what—pass the bill that the Senate is expected to send to them in the next few days.

x House is preparing to operate under same day authority Ã¢ÂÂ also called Ã¢ÂÂmartial lawÃ¢ÂÂ Ã¢ÂÂ through Tuesday, August 1, according to GOP aides — Alex Moe (@AlexNBCNews) July 27, 2017

When you're talking about the House, "martial law" means the Speaker has the power to move a bill from the Rules Committee to the House floor on the same day. That sure doesn't sound like a House leadership planning on going to conference. And it sure sounds like McConnell is leading his idiot sheep to the slaughter.

JAM THE PHONE LINES. Call your Senator at (202) 224-3121 and tell them repealing Obamacare is SICK, MEAN and CRUEL. (After you call, please tell us how it went.)