Pat Toomey says GOP should risk a temporary government shutdown to get spending cuts in debt limit debate

The U.S. senator from Pennsylvania said Republicans had 'no leverage' on spending in the last-minute fiscal cliff agreement.

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said today that Republicans should risk a temporary government shutdown to get spending cuts tied to the expiration of the U.S. government debt limit in February.

Speaking on "Morning Joe" on MSNBC, Toomey said that while the government's credit rating was downgraded during an argument about the debt ceiling in the summer of 2011, that the country's financial standing is more at risk from the government's current fiscal stewardship.

"I'm absolutely convinced that downgrade and market chaos" come when the markets understand the fiscal path down which the United States is heading, Toomey said.

"He (President Obama) got a $2 trillion debt limit increase and blew through it in 17 months," Toomey said.

The senator from Lehigh County defended his vote in favor of averting the fiscal cliff by explaining "the existing law on the books" was raising income and other taxes across the board at the beginning of the year.

"We spared as many Americans as we could a tax increase," the former Club for Growth president said. "... We never had any leverage in spending."

He said he and his staff "pored" over the 153-page bill, "section by section," before he voted on it.

The raising of the debt ceiling and the implementation of the delayed "sequestration" -- spending cuts that were created by the super committee of which Toomey was a part, but were delayed two months by the fiscal cliff vote -- is where Republicans need to push back, he said.

Republicans in the House and Senate have produced budget bills in recent years that would already have the country on a "sustainable" path if had they been voted into law, Toomey said.

He called the Senate "totally dysfunctional" and had harsh words for the president.

"The president has his trophy," a weary Toomey said sarcastically. "It solves about 6 percent of the deficit problem over the next 10 years. Congratulations."

As for more taxes as part of the debt limit debate, Toomey said there's no chance. "We're totally done," Toomey said about revenue.