Millions of lives are on the line and so is Trump’s “Get Out of Mueller Free card”

We’ve lived through this before — and it doesn’t end well.

Trumpcare dies. The left gloats. It can’t pass! But in secret, “moderate” Republicans plot with the White House to find any excuse to get to “Yes,” even if — especially if! — it involves destroying the protections for Americans for pre-existing conditions you promised to keep intact. Trumpcare passes.

That’s what happened with House Trumpcare and it’s easily what could happen with Senate Trumpcare.

🚨 ALERT: We're hearing from Republican sources that calls into Capito and Murkowski recently swung from anti-repeal to pro-repeal. — Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) July 22, 2017

And that’s not the only deja vu I’m feeling.

The thousand false deaths of Trumpcare are beginning to bear an eerie resemblance to the constant implosions followed by Republican retrenchments of the Trump campaign that could soon lead to Democrats waking one morning with a hangover like nothing we’ve felt since November 9, 2016.

Yes, right now it doesn’t seem as if there are 50 votes in the Senate for any version of repeal and _______, especially with John McCain out dealing with brain cancer. That’s the word from Matt Fuller and Jim Newell two reporters who’ve been in the trenches on this story for months.

But the Senate GOP leadership, which began this process drunk with lust for an achievement that will include or set the state for massive rich guy tax breaks, is determined to get past the Motion to Proceed by promising anything to everyone. And even Rand Paul is on board.

Then it’s open season, massive pressure will hail down on all 52 Republicans along with massive giveaways and perversions of our health care system that have had no public hearing or CBO analysis.

In short, this massive parody of everything the GOP pretends to believe could really happen:

12- The Senate could still pass Trumpcare. But if it happens, no one will have read it, scored it, or had much warning of what's in it. — Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) July 21, 2017

And any version of Trumpcare that becomes law will be a public health catastrophe unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes:

The latest Senate bill has the same core flaws as the previous versions: https://t.co/k8ZLHvzvu3 2/ pic.twitter.com/pqspGwHYO9 — Center on Budget (@CenterOnBudget) July 21, 2017

For Trump, this isn’t just about fulfilling the GOP’s prime directive for the last 7 years. It’s about saving his presidency.

With this massive win in his pocket and a glide path to tax cuts laid, he knows Republicans won’t stop him from disposing the biggest risk to his administration, family and fortune — Robert Mueller.

We all know this firing is coming. The question is how willing the GOP is to let us slip into an authoritarian crisis.

And Trump knows in large part that answer depends on his ability to please the GOP donors and hold his base. Trumpcare — which includes the biggest cuts to our social safety ever secured by the conservative movement — would assure him years of their devotion.

No one is going to save us. Not the conscience of Republicans. Not the Senate Parliamentarian.

It’s important to remember that determining how Byrd Rule should be enforced in the reconciliation process is not always straightforward — James Wallner (@jiwallner) July 22, 2017

We can’t even assume that the eventual horror of this bill — the collapse of our health system, the gutting of Medicaid, the hollowing out of employer-based insurance for tens of millions or even the $13,000 deductibles for people can’t even handle a fraction of that will be enough to drive the GOP from power. Not with the way the right has hacked our democracy.

All that can save us is us raising holy holy that exposes the cruelty, corruption and stupidity of the greatest transfer of federal investment from the poor to rich in our history at a moment of some of our worst inequality. More than 200,000 lives depend on it.

Our democracy depends on it.

Paranoia isn’t the problem. Complacency is. This really could happen. I’d be shocked if it didn’t.

Use our toolkit to unleash a tidal wave of pressure on Trumpcare. Target list, phone #'s, facts, graphics. Please RT https://t.co/3XvofXuTE9 — Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) June 7, 2017

[Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr]