Thread by @AlexandraErin

So, babies. Here's the deal with the #GOPTaxPlan.

Tomorrow is "mark-up and debate". This means it, having cleared committee, comes to the Senate floor and Senators can talk about their problems with it and put forth amendments to fix it.

Expect the two GOP Senators who have said they won't vote for it "in its current form" to either propose amendments or be the obvious target of lip service pandering amendments, maybe both.

"Won't vote for it in its current form" is not a commitment to #VoteNo.

That's not to say their wavering means nothing! It's an early indication of the impact of our resistance and the widespread unpopularity of the bill itself. When they waver, it's not time to let up but time to double down. Ramp up the pressure.

Mitch McConnell hopes to vote on this bill THIS THURSDAY, which means whatever amendments get added to it in the next couple days won't be scored by anybody or analyzed in any way.

Once again, they are trying to ram a bad bill through into law so fast no one notices.

If the Senate passes this bill, then one of two things happens.

One, the normal thing, is that the House and the Senate have a joint committee hash out the differences between their two bills and then the compromise version goes back to the floor for a straight up and down vote

The other thing is that Paul Ryan, behind the cue ball and desperate to close out the legislative year being able to say Hey, Congress Did Something, just takes the Senate bill straight to the house floor and has his Republicans vote yes on it.

If that happens?

Game over.

So if the next two days go the GOP's way, they will vote for their scam of a tax bill on Thursday, and if they bring it to a vote the odds are very high they will pass it.

And once they have passed it in the Senate, we're basically out of chances to block it. It *could* still die in the joint committee or not be passed by one of the two houses, if they bother with the committee.

But don't count on it.

I've been saying we have to treat this as TrumpCare version X, because that's where it's leading anyway. We stop it in the Senate like we stopped it the other times, or we're going to be weathering the damage and trying to roll back the changes for a long time.

There are a lot of things going on right now, as there usually are. Net Neutrality and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are under fire by this regime. There's the Alabama special election.

There's also the holidays. In spite of everything else, that's still happening.

But if it seems like too much is happening at once on our end of the stick, remember that from their point of view, the GOP in Congress are the ones who've been racked up on the other side of the cue ball.

I'm not telling you this so you'll feel some kind of sympathy for them.

Nope. Exactly the opposite.

I'm telling you this to remind you to show them no mercy. Give them no quarter. No respite. No space to breathe. Not one inch. Not one breath. Not one moment's rest.

They thought they were going to waltz into DC and make all their venal, stunted little dreams come true. No more ObamaCare. No more Medicare. No more care. They thought they could pass whatever they wanted and their special guest star in the White House would rubber stamp it.

Instead he has proven to be a millstone around the neck of a dead albatross that's hanging around their necks, and they have been mired in controversy, conflict, and blame fatigue.