The Hill News

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on Tuesday criticized the Obama administration for issuing "repeated, shrill exaggerations" about the consequences of failing to increase the debt ceiling.  

Toomey, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, said the government would not default after the Aug. 2 deadline set by the Treasury Department.

"We're not going to have a default," Toomey said. "But what we would have is a partial government shutdown. That's disruptive. That's not ideal."

Toomey said he would not vote to raise the debt ceiling unless the final package includes a balanced budget amendment and spending cuts.

"This talk about default on our debt is completely untrue," Toomey said on the Fox News Channel. "There's more than enough cash that will be coming into the Treasury in the form of ongoing tax revenue. Actually more than 10 times the revenue that's necessary to avoid a default."

Toomey has criticized the administratio! n in the past for equating a breach of the debt ceiling with defaulting, and he is not the only Republican expressing doubts that Aug. 2 is a drop-dead deadline.

Democrats have said many Republicans are not taking the deadline seriously enough.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has warned for months that the nation faces an economic catastrophe if the borrowing limit isn't raised by Aug. 2.