Here’s a brief video of Gov. David Paterson – post leaders meeting – defending his controverisal use of budget extenders to push his spending cuts through the Legislature, compliments of Capital Tonight’s own Kaitlyn Ross.

Paterson says he’s “taking the bull by the horns” because he can’t get the Assembly and the Senate to play ball, adding: “I’m just playing the hand that I’m dealt; I’m not going out of my way to shut down state government.”

“It’s time to act,” the governor said. “And I didn’t criticize all of Senator Skelos’ issues with the process, but we are where we are.”

“But his solution is so outrageous that he’s going to put our state into unchartered waters because of a few irresponsible and reckless senators on the other side of the aisle… I think it’s political opportunism and it’s dangerous.”

Paterson was referring to Skelos’ insistence that his conference will continue to vote in a block against the extenders, even though two Democrats – Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. and Ruben Diaz Sr. – have said they won’t vote “yes” any longer, essentially leaving the majority without sufficient support to pass anything and threatening a shutdown.

Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson (or, perhaps, Simpson? as per Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb) insisted after the meeting that he’ll have no trouble getting the 32 votes he needs.

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