The Senate will vote today to approve a three week budget plan which saves $6 billion, setting the state for what could be a bloody political battle in early April on this year's federal budget.
The hallways of the Capitol were filled with all kinds of talk yesterday, as both sides tried to furiously spin the opposition of 54 House Republicans to the latest stop gap budget.
Democrats said it was the start of a battle between the Tea Party & GOP leaders, while Republicans said the 85 Democrats who voted for the budget plan proved that Speaker John Boehner could bridge both parties to get something done.
The Speaker acknowledged on Wednesday that it won't be a cinch to come up with a deal by April 8 on the rest of this year's budget.
We'll get an idea of how both parties will treat the next couple weeks with news conferences today by both Boehner and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Don't forget - next week, the Congress is off, and President Obama will be out of the country for about five days - so not much is going to get done on this until lawmakers return to work the week of March 28.
Since Congress rarely does anything big without a pressure point, maybe the two week break for Easter will prove to be that kind of mental brick wall for lawmakers. That "district work period" begins on April 15.
After today, the Congress will have cut $10 billion in two short term budget bills. That's not enough for many Republicans, but it's the most since the last time Republicans took over the Congress, when they cut about $9 billion in 1995.
There are some Republicans who believe there's nothing wrong with the approach of short term budgets, coupled with more cutbacks.
We'll see where we are in about two weeks time.
It seems hard to imagine this will get settled easily - but you never know.
