POMPANO BEACH, Florida — Perhaps the most beloved member of the freshman Republican class, Rep. Allen West (R-FL) made a startling announcement on Tuesday: he’s willing to discuss raising taxes in order to address the nation’s budget shortfall.

The Tea Party congressman’s concession came at a small town hall meeting in Pompano Beach. West stipulated that before he would consider increasing taxes, he would have to be satisfied that Congress had first “eliminated a lot of that waste, fraud, and abuse.” Once that threshold was met, West said it’d be time “to talk about raising taxes as a means to make sure we keep our debt and our deficit at a manageable level”:

QUESTIONER: How can we balance the budget without raising taxes?

WEST: [...] There are many things we can do in Washington DC. Last year, as a wet-behind-the-ears freshman, by April I found three wasteful programs in the Department of Defense. It saved the American taxpayer $357 million over 10 years. But, the question is this. If every single member in the House of Representatives, every single member in the Senate, went in on the committee of jurisdiction and oversight and they did the same thing, find $350 million in wasteful programs over the next 10 years, get it and eliminate it, think what happens for our budget. We get ourselves on the road to being able to balance this thing . Now, once we get to a point where we have waxed out the federal government, we have eliminated a lot of that waste, fraud, and abuse, then it certainly comes to the American people to talk about raising taxes as a means to make sure we keep our debt and our deficit at a manageable level.

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The fact that West’s announcement is so surprising speaks to just how intransigent congressional Republicans have become when addressing tax and budget issues.

One of the primary reasons for their obstinance is because of a single anti-tax crusader in Washington DC, Grover Norquist. Nearly every Republican in Congress has signed Norquist’s pledge to “oppose and vote against tax increases.” Just seven House GOPers and seven in the Senate have refused.

Still, cracks are beginning to appear. Other House Republicans have shown similar angst about Norquist’s pledge recently, despite being signatories. They include Reps. Steve King (R-IA), Timothy Johnson (R-IL), Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), Charles Boustany (R-LA), Mike Simpson (R-ID), and Frank Wolf (R-VA).

After Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin avoided some $67 million in taxes by renouncing his American citizenship shortly before the company made its initial public offering, Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Bob Casey (D-PA) introduced the “Ex-Patriot” Act. The bill would make former citizens subject to the capital gains tax on U.S. investments and bar those who renounce citizenship for tax purposes from reentering the country.

To American for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, Schumer and Casey’s effort is akin to Nazism or South African apartheid, as The Hill reports:

“I think Schumer can probably find the legislation to do this. It existed in Germany in the 1930s and Rhodesia in the ’70s and in South Africa as well,” said Norquist. “He probably just plagiarized it and translated it from the original German.”

The Nazis infamously implemented a departure tax on Jews who tried to flee Germany before World War II. Schumer is Jewish.

“There’s already a law in the books George, but this is outrageous,” said Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH), referencing Saverin’s tax avoidance. “If it’s necessary, sure I would support [the Ex-Patriot Act].” In the last few months, several House Republicans have broken with Norquist and the Americans for Tax Reform anti-tax pledge, which says that signers will never agree to any tax increase, for any reason.

Presumptive 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has released an economic plan that would spend trillions of dollars on tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations. These tax cuts would dwarf the Bush tax cuts, and Romney has in no way indicated how he will prevent the cuts from blowing a huge hole in the federal budget.

On CNBC today, former GOP Governor Christine Todd Whitman (NJ) criticized Romney’s tax plan, “you can’t do just tax cuts”:

I believe in cutting taxes. I cut taxes as a governor over and over again. But you can’t do just tax cuts. There are going to be times when you are going to have to close loopholes or raise some taxes. And unfortunately, as a candidate, and this is the problem with our primary system, it forces candidates to the right and to the left, Mitt Romney signed the no-new-taxes pledge.

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While Romney has indeed pledged fealty to Grover Norquist and the Americans for Tax Reform anti-tax pledge, more and more Republicans have been breaking from that pledge, acknowledging that revenue needs to be a part of the nation’s budget solution. Rep. Timothy Johnson (R-IL) even blasted the pledge as “disingenuous and irresponsible.”

Republican support for Senate Democrats’ plan to prevent an interest rate-hike on federal student loans will depend on how anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist feels about it, the top Senate Democrat said Tuesday. President Obama last week began pushing Congress to act on student loan interest rates, which will double in July if Congress doesn’t act. Senate Democrats will unveil a plan this week that pays for the extension of the lower rate by closing a loophole that allows certain businesses to avoid payroll taxes by gaming the tax system.

Closing the “John Edwards loophole,” named after the former senator who used it while practicing law, would raise enough revenue to offset the $6 billion cost of extending the current interest rate. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) sounded pessimistic about garnering Republican support yesterday, saying the GOP would take its cues from Norquist, who opposes closing loopholes to raise new revenue, before deciding whether to support it, the Las Vegas Sun reports:

“I think the proper question is, is it something Grover Norquist would accept,” Reid said, invoking the author of the anti-tax pledge to chide his opponents’ unwillingness to raise taxes. “He seems to be the marker for Senate Republicans. We’ll see.”

If Republican reaction today is any indication, Norquist hasn’t given his blessing to the Democratic plan. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who says he supports the extension, blasted the plan on the Senate floor today, saying it would “raid[] Social Security and Medicare” while “making it even harder for small businesses to hire”:

MCCONNELL: Democrats want to pay for it by raiding Social Security and Medicare and by making it even harder for small businesses to hire. We happen to think that at a time when millions of Americans and countless college students can’t even find a decent job it makes no sense whatsoever to punish the very businesses we’re counting on to hire them. It’s counterproductive and clearly the wrong direction to take.

McConnell’s argument that the plan would undermine Medicare and Social Security makes no sense — though the taxes raised from closing the loophole would normally be directed toward those programs, they are not going there currently because they are not being collected at all.

Closing the loophole, as Citizens for Tax Justice explained in 2010, would actually benefit small businesses and individuals, leveling the playing field for those that don’t game the tax code to lower their rate. “When some small business owners avoid taxes, honest taxpayers make up the gap by paying higher taxes,” CTJ wrote. “Lawmakers who are concerned about the tax burden of small businesses need to do everything possible to close loopholes in the tax code so that all Americans pay their fair share.”

Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist has held most Republicans by the scruff of the neck during recent tax debates due to their having signed the ATR anti-tax pledge, which states that the signees will not vote for a tax increase any time, for any reason. Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), who received accolades from Norquist during his presidential run, is aiming to start a similar pledge in the Lone Star State:

Borrowing a page from anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist’s playbook, Perry said on Monday, “Each and every member of the Legislature or anyone aspiring to become a member of the Legislature should sign on.” And right on the Governor’s website, individuals and lawmakers can sign on to the Compact: Yes, I stand with Governor Perry and I support his Texas Budget Compact. I want my state representatives in the Texas Legislature to sign on to Governor Perry’s Texas Budget Compact.

The compact calls for complete opposition to tax increases, as well as constitutional spending limits and restrictions on using the state’s Rainy Day Fund (which Perry previously plugged using federal money meant for education). While Perry isn’t personally tracking who signs his pledge, he said that outside organizations might.

Part of the compact calls for legislators to eschew budget gimmicks, even though Perry himself is quite fond of using such gimmicks to balance his budget. As Texas State Rep. Mike Villarreal said in a statement, “Governor Perry loves to talk about his principles in the abstract, but he doesn’t want to discuss the disabled kids who lose health services when he won’t close corporate tax loopholes, or the students crowded into full classrooms when he won’t touch the Rainy Day Fund.”

Fortunately, several lawmakers at the federal level have broken with Norquist and his anti-tax pledge. “I think anybody who doesn’t indicate their willingness to look at revenues — expiration of tax loopholes, tax credits, increase in contribution to Social Security, which is a tax, and otherwise — would be disingenuous and irresponsible,” said GOP Rep. Timothy Johnson (IL).

ALGONA, Iowa — The latest Republican to vacillate on Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge was found yesterday in rural western Iowa, where Rep. Steve King (R-IA) told a town hall that although he’d signed the pledge, he didn’t know what he would do if taxes were cut too much.

King was pressed by Algona resident Blair Redenius on why Congress continues to give tax breaks for the wealthy during a time of war. Redenius’ son served three tours in Iraq. After King defended the Bush tax cuts, Redenius noted that the Iowa congressman had signed Norquist’s pledge.

Though nobody’s idea of a moderate, King showed surprising sensibility on the issue of taxes. “I signed this pledge, but what do we do when we get taxes down to where they need to be?” King asked. “At some point we’re going to cut taxes too much. What’s the answer then?”

REDENIUS: One I know you signed is the Norquist pledge, no new taxes. If President Bush would have raised effort for the war effort, would you have voted for that?

KING: [...] I don’t know if I would have or not. I would have to look at the configuration of it and see what it would have been. But I talk to Grover Norquist and I told him this: I signed this pledge, but what do we do when we get taxes down to where they need to be? At some point we’re going to cut taxes too much. What’s the answer then? I’m thinking about that. I haven’t made a public statement on that. That’s as far as I’m willing to go on that.

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Still, Redenius remained unconvinced that King would actually break his pledge to Norquist. “I felt he wouldn’t have voted for it because he signed that pledge,” Redenius told ThinkProgress. “The only pledge he should take is the one when he takes office.”

King is just the latest Republican to waver on Norquist’s anti-tax pledge. Others include Reps. Timothy Johnson (R-IL), Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), Charles Boustany (R-LA), Mike Simpson (R-ID), Frank Wolf (R-VA), and Pennsylvania state Rep. John Bear.

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania — Anti-tax activist Grover Norquist roused the crowd Friday afternoon at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference, a gathering of the state’s conservatives, by saying that Republicans who voted for tax increases “are rat heads in a Coke bottle.”

But one Pennsylvania lawmaker who is a regular speaker at the PLC isn’t a fan of Norquist’s hard-line anti-tax ideology. State Rep. John Bear (R), who spoke shortly after Norquist, has not signed Norquist’s “Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” which requires lawmakers to never vote for tax increases of any kind, for any reason. “I never sign tax pledges,” Bear told ThinkProgress:

WALDRON: I noticed, when Grover Norquist was speaking, they circulated a list of state legislators and senators that had signed his pledge and I didn’t see your name on it.

BEAR: I never sign tax pledges. I just don’t. … I don’t believe in signing tax pledges and giving that authority to any outside group. The constituents of my district elected me. Do I want to tax increases? No. But I have to do what’s right and what’s fair at the time given the circumstances. I just feel like these all-or-nothing tax pledges, it just doesn’t, I just don’t believe in that, so I haven’t signed it.

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Norquist’s death grip on the Republican Party has seemingly weakened of late. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) signed the pledge when he first ran for Congress but said he doesn’t “care to be associated with it” anymore. Former presidential candidate Jon Huntsman refused to sign it during his campaign, and Rep. Tim Johnson (R-IL) blasted it as “disingenuous and irresponsible” earlier this month. Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR), meanwhile, disavowed the pledge by becoming the first House Republican to propose legislation that would levy a surtax on millionaires.