You will no doubt be shocked to learn that the Senate Republicans, given an assignment last week from President Joe Biden to come up with a solid response to his infrastructure plan, failed to meet his deadline.

One of the Republicans present in a meeting Tuesday between the Republican senators and White House officials—including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg—was Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri. He said that they are still in the “talking stage” and are not making solid offers on anything. The Republicans are still offering public-private partnerships and additional fees on drivers of electric vehicles as their revenue sources, he said.

Never mind that the White House and Biden himself have reiterated numerous times over the past several weeks that user fees would be considered a tax on people making less than $400,000 and thus are off the table. Republicans did agree, though, that a hike to the gas tax is out of the question.

“We’ve reworked our original proposal and they’re just going to look at it in more detail,” said Shelley Moore Capito, the lead senator of what is really not negotiations. To be clear, there was pretty much no detail in their original offer. So they could only go “more” from there. “Their view is still a lot broader than ours in what constitutes infrastructure,” which means they’re still arguing over the basic definitions of what they’re negotiating, which means it’s time to cut off this exercise and move forward with the very real stuff that absolutely needs to get done—now.

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The White House said they’d get back to Republicans later in the week. An increasing number of Democrats is saying, “What the hell?” And wondering why in the world the White House is continuing on this futile path.

“I do not think that the White House should relegate recovery to the judgment of Mitch McConnell, because he will not function in good faith,” New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said. “So, I just think it’s a terrible political misstep.” She told Bruce Reed, Biden’s deputy chief of staff, as much. You might remember Reed, a veteran of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. He was also executive director in 2010 of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, also known as the Simpson-Bowles commission. It was also known as the catfood commission, which achieved absolutely zilch. That was in part because the Republicans on the commission continued to advocate for lower taxes for the wealthy and benefit cuts to Social Security and potentially Medicare.

You would think Reed’s experience there, as well as in the Obama-Biden administration as Biden’s chief of staff starting in 2011, would have opened his eyes about the actually willingness of Republicans to negotiate in good faith. On anything. What they will do is continue to pretend like they’re negotiating in order to drag this out. Which once again this White House should be more than familiar with since it was the Republican playbook for the year it took the Obama administration to get healthcare reform done.

The nation can’t afford to wait a year on this, which is the message Gillibrand and other Democrats are giving President Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Gillibrand says she is “100 percent” in favor of cutting losses and passing Biden’s infrastructure vision with budget reconciliation.

House progressives have written to Schumer and Pelosi saying it’s time for “a single, ambitious package combining physical and social investments hand in hand.” One of the 60 or so House members who signed that, Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, says of Republicans: “They’re not being even players and we should just move on without them.” Their supposed $800 billion plan that is not a plan is a “counting gimmick,” he told Politico, adding: “Time to pull the trigger,” and get the bill done.

Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan chimed in, equating the Republican ideas for paying for it with a “bake sale” for raising funds. “At what point do they seriously come to the table?” Pocan said. “If they don’t come to the table, it doesn’t mean we don’t serve the meal.”

Meanwhile, Capito says, “We still got a ways to go,” having provided no sense that they’ve actually got anywhere yet other than continuing to say raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations is still off the table. Oh, and anyone trying to lessen their carbon footprint by driving electric needs to be penalized.

Another spokesperson for Biden, Andrew Bates, says again that Biden “wants to see progress by Memorial Day” and that inaction is not an option. Also: “The president is committed to investing in our middle class and our infrastructure, and is working with both parties—reaching across the aisle in good faith—to negotiate about achieving that.”

We’ve seen this game before. Biden has seen this game before. Republicans promise they’re working in good faith and Democrats act as though they believe it. It’s well past time to give up that act.