The leading purveyor of this new school of economic thought, dubbed the “default deniers” by their opponents, is freshman Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who presented his case before the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday. His theory: The government won’t really go in to default on Aug. 2, and, even if it did, things wouldn’t necessarily be so bad.

“The bottom line is there is no danger of a shortage of cash to pay the interest on our debt and to avoid a default,” Toomey announced, as long as the Treasury continues to roll over existing debt. Toomey argued that it is “irresponsible for the administration to even implicitly threaten the possibility of a default.” The Obama administration, he said, should “send a clear and unambiguous message to the market that under no circumstances will this administration choose to default on our debt.”…

It may, however, be an optimal arrangement for Toomey and fellow conservatives who hope to force the Obama administration to make massive spending cuts in exchange for Republicans’ permission to raise the debt ceiling. If the notion of default is a hoax, then the administration (which has dropped its irresponsible resistence to cuts) has no leverage to force Republicans to accept even a small tax increase along with the spending cuts.