As House Republicans get ready to back at least $35 billion in budget cuts, many newly-elected GOP lawmakers have had very little to say about whether this spending plan goes far enough.

That starts to change today as House members return to Washington, D.C., where the next ten days will show whether this highly touted crop of new Republicans is any different than the old crop that increased spending during the last Bush Administration.

Senior aides of some more conservative Republicans were not interested in going on the record yesterday about what their bosses might do with the GOP budget cutting plan, which left some puzzled as it comes up well short of the $100 billion in quick cuts that top Republicans had been touting for weeks.

Will the Tea Partiers stick with their leadership and not dramatically expand the $35 billion plan?  Or will they battle for larger cuts next week on the floor of the House?

It's an open question, because many of the newly elected Republicans haven't really said anything in the media in recent days about the plan that Republican leaders initially tried to sell as $74 billion in cuts, but which is really $35 billion.

Some GOP staffers acknowledged yesterday that such number games were not helpful, because it immediately raised questions about whether Republicans were using smoke and mirrors to make their plan look like it was taking a bigger chunk out of the deficit.

Will budget hawks who have made it on the House Appropriations Committee just knuckle under in coming days and not try to add more cuts to the $35 billion figure from GOP leaders?

Will those same budget hawks not help Tea Party Republicans on the House floor who want to expand those cuts?

Will they simply argue, it's a start - the Democrats would never have done deficit reduction - and move on?

The Tea Party Leaves aren't easy to read right now.

One thing is for sure, the best stories to cover on Capitol Hill are ones where you don't know the outcome.  And this one certainly qualifies.  

Stay tuned.