Grover Norquist bends on tax issue

Anti-tax stalwart Grover Norquist is squirming a bit, and you can't blame him. After two decades of hammering away on taxes and getting Republicans to fall in line, he's facing inevitable tax increases of some sort.

And so Norquist has had somewhat of a change of heart, saying Wednesday that he's OK with House Speaker John Boehner's "Plan B" legislation that would raise taxes on people earning at least $1 million a year.

"ATR will not consider a vote for this measure a violation of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge," Norquist's group, Americans for Tax Reform, wrote on its website Wednesday.

Norquist says that Republicans voting for the legislation that would raise taxes on millionaires are actually sticking with the pledge they made to oppose all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rate. The Taxpayer Protection Pledge is Norquist's signature effort; he has persuaded nearly all Congressional Republicans to make it.

The issue here is largely semantics. Boehner's Plan B proposal would continue the current tax cuts for all but the wealthiest Americans. Norquist is happy with continued tax breaks. But he doesn't say anything about the other side of the coin here, which is that people making more than $1 million could see their tax rates increase.

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