Yesterday, I spoke with Don Stewart, a senior Senate GOP staffer, about the outlook for the lame-duck session:

In an interview with National Review Online, Don Stewart, the communications director for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), says that Republicans “are preparing and remain on guard” for Democratic maneuvers. Still, he says, “With a whole new crop of Democrats, including the president, immediately facing the 2012 cycle after Election Day, there may not be a lot of momentum on their side to make controversial votes.”
Come December, things may heat up. Stewart tells us that Republicans will be focused on finding a way to extend the Bush tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of this year. Stewart says that the GOP is open to working with Democrats on this, and that party leaders want to find a way to keep current law in place. Republicans would also like to see a freeze on appropriations and spending kept to at least $300 billion below the president’s current budget proposal, all while eyeing more ways to slice largesse from the federal budget.

According to Ed Morrissey, as Democrats scramble on the budget, last-minute pork is another worry:

Republicans have warned that Democrats would use the lame-duck session to push major policy changes, like Card Check and cap-and-trade, but those have as little chance of passing in a lame-duck session as they have all year. Republicans will hold the same filibuster power in the Senate to block such policy changes, and in fact could pick up a couple of seats in Illinois and West Virginia to augment their votes. The main threat in the lame-duck session has always been the budget. Democrats postponed budgeting specifically because they didn’t want to be held accountable for their massive overspending in the midterms, and they can’t put off a budget to January because Republicans will control the agenda. The budget was always going to be the biggest issue in a lame-duck pork-squeezing session.

The Hill has more on the brewing budget fight.