Voters are less than three weeks out from the biggest contested Republican primary of Super Tuesday on March 6. 

That's Ohio, the always-critical presidential battleground state.

Lots of excitement? Lots of activity? Lots of money being spent?

No, no ... and no.

For now, it is a low-budget, low-key affair in the Ohio nominating contest.

In terms of campaign visits to Ohio, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum have yet to make a stop here (though Santorum will be in Ohio on Friday).

Newt Gingrich's first swing through the Buckeye State was just last week. Mitt Romney has made a couple of visits.

That's it. 

Ditto grassroots campaign operations.

"(That's) largely non-existent," said Chris Littleton, a Paul supporter in Westchester. 

So, without a campaign to work for, some banded together to create their own presidential political operation. 

Littleton said, "There are many of us who decided ... we didn't see the campaigns were going to engage in a large level, so we decided to do it for ourselves." (read more)

With President Obama's 2013 budget now in the hands of members of Congress, typically, the House and Senate would pass budget resolutions, which would tell the Appropriations committees how much they can allocate. Then the appropriators figure out how much money discretionary programs would receive.

This year is different because Majority Leader Harry Reid has said the Senate will not vote on a budget.

"They haven't had a budget now pass the Senate for over 1,000 days. And the Democrat leader and the Democratic-controlled Senate said we're not even going to vote on the president's budget," Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told Fox News.

Democrats argue the binding budget caps from the debt ceiling agreement last summer was enough, so the Senate will not take up a budget this year. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan says he will present a budget citing a “moral obligation” to try and fix this country’s major problems.

Even if Congress does not pass a budget through this process, you can expect to hear Obama and House Republicans selling key points from each proposal to the American people in this election year.

"I suppose there are many ways to make the process better, but the principal one is for elected officials of goodwill to decide they're going to check the ideological baggage at the door when they go to negotiate," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said. (read more)

Republicans are going to work off the budget the House GOP passed last year to come up with its proposals for the next fiscal year budget, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said Sunday, adding that the GOP is "not backing off of any of our ideas, any of our solutions."

Ryan, R-Wis., speaking on "Fox News Sunday," said the budget isn't written yet, and won't be ready until March, when bean counters have the "base line," or current budget figures used as the template for budgeting.

"I and my members of the Budget Committee will write this budget in March and then we're going to bring it to the floor. We think we owe the country actual solutions based upon our founding principles to get this country on the right track," Ryan said.

The budget passed by the GOP last year called for $5.8 trillion in spending cuts by 2021, eliminating $800 billion in tax increases by repealing President Obama's health care plan, eliminating deductions on tax returns while setting a top tax rate both for individuals and businesses of 25 percent and reforming entitlements like Medicare.  It passed the GOP-led House, but died in the Democratic-led Senate. (read more)

Sen Budget Cmte Chairman Kent Conrad, D-ND, unveiled his budget blueprint Monday which he says cuts the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years, $50 billion more than House Republicans' plan, reducing the nation's deficit from 9.3% of Gross Domestic Product to 1.3% by 2023. The plan calls for a tax hike on individuals making more than $500,000 annually and couples earning in excess of $1 million in part to pay for a 10-year, $1.5 trillion fix for those Americans who would otherwise be hit by the Alternative Minimum Tax. An additional hike in the estate tax to 2009 levels will also help cover lost revenue, as will a sliding scale shutdown of both offshore tax havens and the elimination of tax expenditures (if you close down more havens, you have to end fewer expenditures, etc).

A member of both the president's fiscal commission and the bipartisan "Gang of Six," Conrad sought to debunk Republicans' assertion that raising taxes on the wealthy could tank the fragile U.S. economy.

"Facts are stubborn things...The fact is, we had the longest period of uninterrupted growth in the economy during a period in which revenue was where we propose in this budget," Conrad argued, saying that if the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office were to analyze his plan, it would score it "as being a $765 billion tax cut, because we are replacing revenue lost by extending other tax cuts." (read more)

A senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee says it's time to stop playing political games when it comes to raising the debt limit.

Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., told Fox News riders onto the debt bill could have unintended consequences.

"I've been through this and seen what happens when you have to pay 2 percent or 3 percent more to borrow money. They are playing with dynamite by not raising the debt ceiling and I think it should have been raised clean," McDermott said during an interview with "America's News HQ" Sunday.

McDermott was one of 97 House Democrats who voted to increase the statutory debt limit by $2.406 trillion. The measure failed during a vote on May 31.

The congressman said resolving the debt ceiling issue "is crucial for our place in the world economic system," adding that he's open to all ideas to balance the budget.

One option the Washington Democrat is proposing is letting the Bush-era tax cuts expire. "The deficit would go down by $533 billion," he said. "So, there are a lot of ways we can get there."

McDermott said bipartisan cooperation is key to closing the budget gap. "You have to sit down and talk about the details," he said. "I'm willing to do that. I was here in '94 in the Congress when we raised taxes and made cuts, and we balanced the budget under Bill Clinton."

"It can't be one way: your way or the highway."

Republicans and Democrats still have not come up with a budget deal to fund the 2012 fiscal year, and one of the major sticking points is defense spending.

Freshman Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., said in an interview on "America's Election HQ" Sunday that during his 22 years in the military and the time he has spent on Capitol Hill, he has "found three wasteful programs in the DOD budgets which will come out to about 800 million dollars in savings for American tax payers."

But he's also worried some members of Congress may chop too much out of the Pentagon's budget.

"My concern is that we don't want to strip off all the meat from the bone of the Department of Defense, because when we look at soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and even Coast Guard, who are on fifth and sixth tours of duty, we have got to do better for them and their families," West said.

When it comes to the economy as a whole, the congressman said some of President Obama's policies just aren't working. "There are things that the Obama administration has done that have proven to be, you know, of baring no good fruit," West said.

"The unemployment rate that is now we see rising again and if you throw in underemployment and the employment rate in the urban areas of the minority communities, it is exorbitantly high." (read more)

More. That's what Republicans who might soon run for president want, when it comes to spending cuts.

At this weekend's Greenville, South Carolina GOP Convention, former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour declared that if this weekend's budget deal had been played out on a baseball diamond, then Republicans had a nice first trip to the plate. But, now it's time to keep swinging.

"You can't always get everything you want in the first time at bat," Barbour said. "The good news is, Boehner and his good Republicans have left us two more times at bat just in this inning."

Those next at-bats will be the upcoming debates on raising the debt ceiling, and the 2012 budget. Barbour also said the 2012 presidential election will be the most important in his lifetime.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich thinks current Speaker of the House John Boehner did a nice job hammering out an agreement before a government shut down. But, like Barbour, Gingrich says now it's time for bigger and better things.

"This creates an opportunity," Gingrich says of the pending spending cuts. "This is a building block, and the next big step is the debt ceiling. And we should challenge President Obama right now. This doesn't have to go down to the wire, this doesn't have to go down to the last night. Spend more time leading and less time picking a final four." (read more)

New York Congressman Eliot Engel wants to make one thing crystal clear: although he voted to keep the government funded this week, it doesn't mean he's happy with the short-term spending bill.

Roughly 12 hours after casting his vote for a bridge bill that keeps the government's lights on until Thursday, Engel told Fox News, "I voted to keep negotiating."

When asked if he would support the current budget deal when it came time to vote, Engel responded, "No, I most certainly will not."

Engel, whose district includes the Bronx, tells Fox News, "I don't think I can vote for a program that hurts my constituents, essentially middle class, at the same time continuing the tax breaks for the rich. I don't think it's fair. I don't think it's right."

While Republicans argue that tough cuts are needed to combat the debt, Engel says the GOP is to blame for the deficit that has soared past $14 trillion. (read more)

In light of the potential government shutdown, federal workers are having to come to grips with the idea of being "essential" or "non-essential." And now a t-shirt website gives them a way to wear their new labels on their sleeves.

For $17 dollars, federal workers can buy a t-shirt that labels them "officially essential 2011" or "officially nonessential 2011."

The shirts come in men's and women's sizes and a variety of colors.  They also come customized in House of Representatives and Senate versions as well as many federal departments and agencies.

It's been more than a month since Vice President Biden, the White House lead negotiator, first visited Capitol Hill to meet with congressional leaders on the budget resolution. But as the countdown to a shutdown approached this week, the VP appeared aggravated with the lack of progress.

"Joe Biden wasn't flustered, but he was damn mad," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters Friday of the Vice President's demeanor at the White House Thursday night. "The numbers have been agreed upon. Last night they were agreed upon. It shouldn't be over title ten and that's why Joe got upset."

President Obama sent Biden to the Capitol on three occasions in March to work out a budget deal. And while he continued to call leaders in the House and Senate, even while traveling to Eastern Europe, Biden failed to make any headway on the agreement.

Last week, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked if Biden was still the chief negotiator. Carney steered away from a direct answer saying, "we have a team of highly skilled negotiators," but, added that "obviously the Vice President is very engaged." (read more)