Grover Norquist, one of the country's most vocal anti-tax advocates and an influential Republican thinker, said today that the so-called fiscal cliff can be avoided without Republicans violating the pledge they made to his group to never raise taxes.

Speaking at a breakfast at the Newseum sponsored by Politico, Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, said he is not so sure members of Congress will break his pledge, at least not during the lame-duck session under way.

There is increasing speculation that at least some high-profile Republicans, such as Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, would consider dismissing Norquist's anti-tax pledge if that puts the country on sound fiscal footing. But Norquist questioned the political wisdom of doing so.

"The people who raise taxes are failing, and the people who cut taxes are succeeding," he said. "I don't want to be too rough on Saxby Chambliss because he never voted on a tax increase. He just talked out loud about maybe someday doing that."

President Obama and most congressional Democrats support increasing taxes on high-income earners, but Norquist says that would hinder economic growth. "The idea that people want higher taxes and will put up with higher taxes doesn't show up in the way guys at the state and local level" think about the issue, he added.

Norquist also called on congressional leaders involved in the fiscal negotiations to lay out their work in an open setting. This call for more transparency in the process, he said, should include adding a robust Web presence and negotiating any deals before live C-SPAN cameras.

Norquist, who has long advocated for smaller government, said that if some of the automatic budget cuts set to go into effect in January, known as a sequestration, actually took place, the results would not be that bad.

"Trigger the sequester. That's good," he said. "You have less spending. I'm all in favor of looking at the Pentagon spending and reforming how you get it as long as you use the same number of dollars. I'm a strong advocate that you need to look at the Pentagon in the same way we look at all government spending."

For the most part, House Republican leaders are sticking to their guns on income tax rates for top earners, despite a widely reported plea yesterday from Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) that GOP lawmakers extend tax cuts for all but the top two brackets in an effort to avert the fiscal cliff.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said this morning that the party would not accept a deal that increased tax rates.

"I told Tom earlier in our conference meeting that I disagreed with him. ... You're not going to grow the economy if you raise tax rates on the top two rates. It'll hurt small businesses, it'll hurt our economy," Boehner said in a news conference. "This is not the right approach. We're willing to put revenue on the table, as long as we're not raising rates."

Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) also criticized Obama and congressional Democrats for not being willing enough to cut spending and entitlements.

"We have done our part. We have put revenues on the table -- something that we didn't do two years ago during the debt ceiling negotiations," Cantor said. "But we have not seen any good faith effort on the part of this administration to talk about the real problem that we're trying to fix."

'Job security'

At the breakfast this morning, Norquist appeared confident and seemed to be reveling in the recent rash of publicity he's garnered. His sway has been questioned in two New York Times op-eds this week, as well as in several Washington periodicals and news shows.

The more time in the spotlight, the better, he said: "I have job security that most people don't have. ... We're always going to feel that our taxes are too high."