After an over two week break for Easter, lawmakers return to work this week in Washington, D.C., with several high stakes political battles on the budget, the nation's debt limit and high gasoline prices.
Both sides have already made clear that they want to put the other party on the spot and force them to take difficult political votes in coming weeks, whether it's on the budget or high energy prices.
It doesn't exactly sound like a recipe for compromise on what should be done by the Congress.
On energy issues, neither party is offering much that's new at this point in time. Instead, both sides continue to furiously try to pin the blame for high gas prices on the other.
"Of course, while rising gas prices mean real pain for our families at the pump, they also mean bigger profits for oil companies," President Obama said over the weekend, as Democrats try to tie Republicans to Big Oil.
Democrats this week hope to force votes in both the House and Senate to repeal $4 billion in tax breaks received by the oil and gas industry, trying to argue the GOP cares more about Big Oil executives than working people hit hard by high prices at the pump.
It was a strategy they used repeatedly during the last Bush Administration as well.
On the GOP side, Republicans have pounced on how the average price of gas has doubled since the Obama Administration has come into office, arguing that Democrats oppose the idea of tapping domestic U.S. energy sources.
It's a strategy the GOP has used for years to argue for the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and areas in the Gulf of Mexico to new oil and gas exploration.
This week, House Republicans will force votes on two different bills that would expand oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and off Virginia.
While there will be fireworks on gas prices, you can expect a lot of electricity as well on the budget front in coming weeks.
That budget fight will consist of two parts - the battle over raising the nation's debt ceiling, the amount of debt that Uncle Sam can have; and the fight over next year's budget.
Republicans have already said they won't move a bill to raise the debt limit without attaching plans for big budget cuts.
The White House has already made clear that kind of plan is unacceptable.
Stir into those ingredients the battle lines over next year's budget, where Democrats argue Republicans want to do away with Medicare and more, while GOP lawmakers say the White House isn't serious about real deficit reduction.
Is there really any middle ground here?
While these battles boil in coming months, we face an unusual Congressional calendar as well, as House Republicans have moved away from the typical calendar of the last 30+ years that I've been knocking around the halls of Congress.
Instead of both the House and Senate being off at the same time around Memorial Day and July Fourth, the House and Senate have different break weeks - meaning the Congress won't be truly adjourned again until early August.
It could mean these budget battles never take a week off over the next three months either.
Welcome back, Congress.
