Rep. Paul Ryan to the rescue.

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The Wisconsin Republican, his party’s former vice presidential nominee and current chairman of the Budget Committee, is advocating for a short-term debt ceiling increase to try to force the White House and Senate Democrats to wrestle down the nation’s ballooning deficit.

In a closed meeting of House Republicans, and later to reporters, Ryan said Republicans need to come to grips with the fact that they are the only Republicans in power in Washington. In the closed legislative strategy session, he said the GOP should avoid overpromising and underdelivering, according to five sources present. Instead, House Republicans should work to control expectations about what they can extract from Obama, and then people will be pleased by the result.

“We have to also recognize the realities of divided government that we have,” Ryan told reporters gathered here in a golf course clubhouse. “And so while we aspire to give the country a very specific and clear vision about what we think is the right way to go on the major big issues of the time, we have to at the same time recognize the divided government moment that we have and the fiscal deadlines that are approaching, what those involve and then how we’re going to proceed forward.”

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Ryan’s comments reflect the quiet chatter in leadership that Republicans need to better instill in their members the idea that besting Obama is a tall task.

It’s not a particularly novel idea, but it shows that Ryan’s passive public persona in the Capitol is simply a facade. He is still trying to lead Republicans behind the scenes, while he publicly brushes off questions about his future.

He still declined to entertain questions about running for president in 2016. He said, “I don’t have an answer for you,” when asked whether he’ll run.

Ryan isn’t suggesting Republicans turn coy for the next few years. He said he will author a budget that will show how Republicans would cut away at the national deficit if they controlled all of D.C. And he also suggested that Republicans might try to tie tax reform to one of the upcoming fiscal debates.

“We think the worst thing for the economy is to move past these events that are occurring with no progress made on the debt and deficit,” Ryan said.

Ryan spoke at a session that was meant to begin the planning for the first quarter of 2013. Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) were on the panel for the session, called “the next 90 days, planning for the first quarter.” Staff were ejected for part of the briefing.

It’s a busy time on Capitol Hill. In the first three months of the year, government funding runs dry, automatic federal spending cuts take hold and the nation reaches its statutory borrowing limit.

How Republicans fight Obama and the Democrats is critically important. GOP lawmakers found out here this week that their disapproval ratings are a sky-high 64 percent. They are perceived as not caring enough about the economy and jobs. Drawn-out legislative battles only add to that negative perception, Republicans fear.