Deciding against a showdown that could lead to a government shutdown, Republicans in the House are expected to join Democrats on Thursday to approve a six month temporary budget plan to keep the government running once the fiscal year ends at the end of September.
As usual, the Congress has not approved the budget bills on time - that last happened in 1996 and 1994, once by each party - and so a temporary budget plan is needed.
Unlike last year when Tea Party lawmakers vowed to vote against any short term budget, this time many Republicans see it as the right political choice.
"I intend to vote for it," said Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia, the President of the large freshmen class of Republicans elected in 2010.
"It just does not make good to have another threat of a shutdown," Scott told me off the House floor, as lawmakers are expected to approve this bill and then get out of Washington, D.C. as early as next week to go home to campaign.
A departure by next Friday would mark the earliest the Congress has gone home to campaign since 1960.
"We need the extension so we don't have come back in a lame duck session worried about a government shutdown," said Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia, another Republican who has urged deep budget cuts, but is willing to back off right now.
The funding level in the temporary budget is at $1.047 trillion, which is what Democrats wanted for the next fiscal year; Republicans argued for $1.028 trillion, a difference of $19 billion.
But Democrats in the Senate vowed that they would never accept that lower number.
"We're stuck at this point," said Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma, another freshman Republican who wants big budget changes, but knows that Republicans need to be in charge of the Senate to force a different outcome in the Congress.
"So it's a six month extension; let's get us into a new House, a new Senate and hopefully a new President," Lankford said.
But that begs the question - what if the November elections produce the same outcome, with one party in charge of the House and one in charge of the Senate? Will anything actually change?
"I'll let you know November 7, early in the morning," said Rep. John Mica of Florida, drawing chuckles from reporters just off the House floor.
As of now, both sides are dug in, neither one willing to yield, ready to see what happens on Election Day.
And so, lawmakers seem ready to approve this stop gap budget plan and return home next week to make their case to the voters.
Meanwhile, another year goes by without lawmakers finishing the budget on time. The last time they did in 1996, they rolled up seven spending bills into one and jammed that through the House and Senate just before the fiscal year ended on September 30.
The last time the spending bills were all approved individually by the deadline was 1994.
This year, the House approved six of the twelve budget bills, the Senate never even brought one of those funding bills to the House floor.
