Anti-tax lobbyist Grover Norquist predicts that none of the Republican who are having "impure thoughts" about taxes will actually break their pledge and vote for additional revenue.
Since singing defeats by their party in the November elections, several Republicans who signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge -- including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) -- have said they would compromise with Democrats in return for cuts to earned benefits like Medicare and Social Security.
"No pledge-taker has voted for a tax increase," Norquist explained to CNN's Soledad O'Brien on Monday. "They've had some people discussing impure thoughts on national television."
"However, Lindsey Graham, if you listen to him, he would support higher taxes if it was used to pay down the debt -- of course, it won't be, it will be spent -- if ten-to-one ratios on entitlement reform. I've had long conversations with Lindsey Graham and he says, 'I would raise taxes if...' and then he lists this incredible lists of reforms and entitlements that the Democrats would never give him."
Norquist added: "And as I suggested to him, I said, 'Senator, you're offering to trade a tax increase for a pink unicorn that doesn't exist.'"
O'Brien pointed out that even though Norquist claims that Republicans had made a commitment to voters not to raise taxes, "the pledge does come from you... Americans for Tax Reform -- you're the founder, you're the president. This is really your pledge."
"We encourage candidates to make a commitment," the anti-tax crusader insisted. "You can either reform government so that it spends less and works better or you can raise taxes to keep doing all the things that we've been doing that haven't worked very well."
Watch this video from CNN's Starting Point, broadcast Nov. 26, 2012.
