Sens. John Thrasher, Don Gaetz and Dennis Jones

Nearly $4 billion in cuts. Reductions in education, Medicaid, state worker compensation and other programs. Taking on highly controversial measures like immigration control, union dues legislation, even plans to shake up the Supreme Court and rework elections laws.

It's been a combustible mixture. And it resulted in what many lawmakers say is the most difficult legislative session they've ever experienced, as teachers decry a new merit pay law, public-sector unions fight to keep automatic dues deductions, undocumented workers and migrant-rights advocates swarm the Capitol in near-daily protests, and other interest groups do their own informal brand of lobbying.

"It's been tough," said Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, who served as House speaker in 1999 and 2000. "It's a lot easier to govern when you have resources, and this has been a tough year."

With one week left to go in the 2011 regular legislative session, there is evidence that the perceived unpopularity of some measures and the pressure from interest groups is getting to at least some lawmakers.

The Senate's immigration bill is watered down compared to the House version, which calls on more stringent verification of legal status for employers and the ability for law enforcement to check legal status during traffic stops, and might not make it through the upper chamber next week. The union dues bill, which squeaked through its committees, may not even come up for a vote in the Senate, and the unemployment compensation reform legislation -- which does not include a six-week cut of benefits in the Senate like the House version does -- has not yet been placed on the special order calendar.

If other legislators have been fazed by the commotion brought about by the large-scale reforms, Thrasher, who has carried the union dues bill through its rocky committee ride, has not.

"I'm a conservative, I believe in limited government, I believe in low taxes, so I don't have a problem with what we're doing," Thrasher said.

Furthermore, Thrasher thinks his fellow lawmakers should not be intimidated by the sometimes large, loud protests at the Capitol.

"There are tough decisions. If that bothers anybody, it shouldn't. People have a right to come up here and state their case, and I hope they do it in a respectful way. Again, there'a a lot of passion in these issues and I get that," Thrasher said.

The pledge from House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, and Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, to not raise taxes or fees made it easier for lawmakers to focus on finding savings in the budget, Thrasher added.

"We pretty much had an agenda for what we wanted to accomplish ... we knew we were going to have to cut spending, so we've been pretty principled about that," he said.

Along with other controversial items that have caused an uproar, the two main pieces of the Legislature's to-do list for next week are the budget and Medicaid reform. Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Seminole, who has served in Tallahassee for three decades, said they have set the tone for the whole session.

"I've been here now 30 years and every session has its own personality. Obviously, this year the session was driven by the budget, and driven by Medicaid," Jones said.

Jones added that the session has also been marked by Gov. Rick Scott's emphasis on jobs, but said he would have liked to have seen the political outsider, who won a narrow victory over Democrat Alex Sink in November, take a greater hand in lobbying for legislation earlier on in the process.