STATE COLLEGE — Reform-minded GOP senators are talking about pushing for a balanced-budget amendment to help rein in spending in a federal budget saddled with trillions of dollars of debt, Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey said Friday.

Responding to a question during an appearance at Penn State, Toomey said the version of the amendment gathering most support among Republican colleagues requires a supermajority to raise taxes as part of what’s considered a “bulletproof balanced budget approach.”

A constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget is also a policy position favored by those in the tea party movement.

Toomey also acknowledged any such idea would encounter Democratic resistance.

“It probably won’t succeed, and then probably the fallback position is some kind of statutory spending cut,” he said. “The idea is to put in a limit, and then to enforce the limit.”

Toomey spoke to officials, professors, staff and students at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business. He called the looming legislative tug-of-war over future spending “the big showdown” following approval this week of the 2010 budget.

The budget deficit this year is expected to reach a record $1.6 trillion. Added to previous year’s deficits, it would bring the national debt to about $14.3 billion.

Annual deficits are expected to decline as the economy recovers from the worst downturn since the 1930s, but then climb again as millions of baby boomers qualify for government Social Security and Medicare benefits.