It might be about time to grab the pot on the back burner labeled "Budget Battles," and move it to the front of the Legislative Stove, because things are starting to simmer in Congress.

Last week, a group of more conservative Republicans turned up the heat with a plan that calls for $2.5 trillion in budget cuts over the next ten years.

This weekend, we also had Republicans give the big thumbs down on the idea of any new stimulus spending from the White House as part of tomorrow's State of the Union Address.

And today, the House will consider a resolution that sets the stage for the House to vote on at least $100 billion in cuts in coming weeks, as we start getting closer and closer to the point where an increase in the debt limit of Uncle Sam is needed.

"Republicans are not going to vote for this increase in the debt limit unless there are serious spending cuts and reforms," said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) on NBC's 'Meet the Press.'

Cantor has been turning up the budget heat himself in recent days, urging on budget hawks in his own party and sending signals that the GOP leadership is serious about finding ways to truly cut the budget.

"I hope that federal agencies across the spectrum will follow suit and find ways to cut their own budgets," Cantor said last week.

"If not, we're happy to do it for them."

This week, the House will vote on one budget cutting plan, which would get rid of the program that helps finance presidential campaigns and zeroes out money for the political conventions of the two major parties.

But that kind of stuff is small potatoes when compared to the still-unknown details of what Republicans will try to cut from the budget this year, whether money for public broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts and much more.

We'll see what President Obama adds to the mix tomorrow night on the budget, as he is expected to talk about addressing the deficit.

But the talk about "common ground" on the budget would seem to be a lot easier to do than actually getting down to nitty gritty details on budget cuts.

There are newly-elected Tea Party Republicans who want to flex their muscles on the budget, which should make for a fascinating next few weeks here in the Capitol.