There are nearly 300 amendments filed in the Senate for the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, including things from Republicans like funding Trump’s border wall, or barring federal funding for a state “in which the governor of such State has been found, by the relevant State or Federal authorities, to have sexually harassed employees while holding the position of governor.”

Subtle one from Iowa’s Joni Ernst there, huh? “There are people holding amendments that they really shouldn’t be,” Montana Democrat Jon Tester told The Hill. What a shock! As if it wasn’t clear since April that Republicans were going to do everything in their power to delay action on President Biden’s signature goal for his first term.

Meanwhile, Republicans are pushing the story that there will be a raft of Republican votes for the thing in the end. “I think everybody pretty much knows what they’re going to do. I think some people are trying to get to yes,” an anonymous Republican senator told The Hill. “So my prediction is 20.” But the “trying to get to yes” is just so hard for the poor beleaguered senators, who have worked so tirelessly to get to this point.

Like Republican Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, who was in on the negotiating of the bill and is "struggling to get to yes", according to Politico. “I’m still very interested in seeing a result on a bipartisan infrastructure bill, and hope to be able to be a yes,” Moran said. “I’m going to talk to my colleagues, finish the analysis, and make a decision as to whether I believe overall this is better for the country to have it.”

Another Republican in the negotiating group hints that she’s on the edge, too. “Sen. Moran is in the same place that many of our colleagues are,” Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski told Politico. “So my hope is he and his team have taken these past couple of days really scouring it, and sees the benefit for the people of Kansas.” That’s a statement to Democrats that they have to make this worthwhile to every Republican senator to get their votes. (Alaska does just fine, thank you very much.) Just give them their hundreds of amendments!

Another one of those Republicans who endorsed the bipartisan process is North Carolina’s Thom Tillis. He promised The Hill that he was going to make sure the spirit of bipartisanship prevailed and that he’d vote against any poison pill type amendments. “I for one am going to maintain the integrity of the baseline,” he said. “I’ve told a lot of my colleagues I may be in a position to have to vote against some of the amendments, not because I disagree with the policy but if it [doesn’t] fit within the negotiations that I and my staff were involved in.” South Dakota Republican Mike Rounds said much the same thing, insisting that the “moderates” on both sides would “preserve” that bipartisanship. “At this stage of the game, we’re doing as much defense on some poison-pill amendments as we are” pushing amendments, Rounds said.

So when Sen. Ron Johnson offered an amendment to restart Trump’s border wall boondoggle, Tillis and Rounds should have opposed it, since it was clearly a partisan poison pill intended just to rile up the Trumpist base. They voted for it, of course. As did every single other Republican present. Along with Democrat Joe Manchin.

Those Republicans who are struggling so hard to continue to prove they can be bipartisan if those socialist Democrats will just let them should have a chance to prove it as soon as Thursday. Maybe. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer suggested Thursday morning that he was ready to call amendments done by the end of the day and file for cloture on the bill.

“So far the senate has considered 22 amendments on this bipartisan piece of legislation. […] Of the 22 total amendments, more than half have been offered by our Republican colleagues,” Schumer said. “Clearly the democratic majority has given members who are not part of the bipartisan group a chance to make their mark on this important bill.” He went on to say that more amendments will be considered Thursday, “and then hopefully we can bring this bill to a close very shortly.” That suggests filing for cloture sometime Thursday for a vote Saturday.

He said his “goal is to pass both a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a budget resolution during this work period, and we will stay here to get both done.” That’s unlikely, since this work period is supposed to end this week.