For Americans worrying about the negative implications of Congress failing to reach agreement on raising the nation’s debt ceiling, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey’s comments at the Butler Eagle Monday provided cause for optimism that a crisis can be averted.

Toomey painted a more hopeful picture than some of the news accounts emanating from Washington. He didn’t express absolute certainty that a debt-ceiling accord would be in place by Aug. 2, the date the Treasury Department has set as D-Day, but he indicated that failure to meet that deadline would not be catastrophic.

Rather, he used references such as “disruptive” and “inconvenient.” He said the U.S. would have enough revenue on hand to continue making all debt service payments and other obligations such as Social Security checks and military salaries.

He characterized “alarmist” prognostications to the contrary as “misrepresentations from the (Obama) administration, which, I think, is designed to intimidate Republicans into just voting to raise the debt limit.”

His assessment of the situation might be right on target. However, news reports coming out of Washington continue to raise the specter of a new recession, imperiled stock market investments, rising interest rates, lower home values, job losses, business failures and shattered faith in the world’s most powerful economy, if an agreement is not reached on time.

Equally as troubling are some news accounts’ observations that not enough Americans have awakened to such possibilities.

“My guess is we probably will (meet the Aug. 2 deadline), but I’m worried about whether it will be a substantive deal that really starts to move us in the right direction,” Toomey said.

He said he isn’t expecting or even realistically hoping “that we have this huge comprehensive, transformative deal. I would settle for something that moves us in the right direction, but I’m worried that we’re not even going to get that.”

Toomey said he’s committed to standing his ground and helping to block the debt ceiling increase unless there also are spending cuts and other measures and changes to control spending.

Regardless of his good intentions, he and many others on both sides of the legislative aisle might eventually have to re-evaluate their positions.

For now, Americans can only hope that Toomey is right when he says “there’s no reason in the world default needs to happen because ongoing tax revenue is more than 10 times what’s needed to avoid a default on our debt.”

People harboring worries over the debt-limit situation would be more encouraged if there was evidence of more compromise than what currently exists.