Bob Costa reported here on the highlights of Rep. Paul Ryan’s comments during a small press conference put on by The American Spectator and Americans for Tax Reform. … clamoring about a government shutdown:

“We’re talking tens of billions of dollars here. I think we need to see the forest for the trees. When we do our budget we’re talking about trillions of dollars. I for one prefer to spend my time focusing on how to save trillions, not just for the next fiscal year but for the next decade — by reforming the spending programs that are driving us into a debt ditch — than to worry about tens of billions of dollars.”

“We are in divided government, we are not going to be able to dictate the terms of everything by just controlling the House of Representatives. We can define ourselves with our actions, we can make great proposals, but we’re deluding ourselves to think that everything we want is going to pass into law with Harry Reid in the senate and Barack Obama in the presidency. What we can do is make proposals and define ourselves with actions that show where we want to go in this country and then give the American people a real choice in 2012.”

“So let’s not sweat tens of billions, let’s look at trillions and see where we’re headed.”