New York Times, How to Raise Revenue Without Violating the Tax Pledge, by Bruce Bartlett:

The biggest barrier to reducing the budget deficit is the Republican insistence that taxes not be increased by so much as a penny. … Enforcement of Republican tax dogma is handled by Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, a group that isn’t actually in favor of tax reform because it supports every gimmicky tax cut that comes down the road and likewise opposes eliminating any special-interest tax provision if it would lead to higher taxes on anyone. …

There are, however, ways of cutting spending by raising revenue. While this sounds like magic, it is done all the time.

The first thing one needs to know is that not all federal revenues count as revenues. Some are classified as “offsetting receipts” or “offsetting collections.” Such revenues are classified as negative spending rather than as revenues. The classification has no effect on the deficit but does make both federal spending and revenues about $600 billion lower than they actually are.

Details on offsetting receipts can be found in Chapter 16 of the analytical perspectives volume of the federal budget. As it explains, such receipts consist of user fees and other voluntary payments made to the government in exchange for services of various kinds. …

There are many other ways, as well, where the concept of offsetting receipts could be used to reduce federal spending while raising revenues through higher fees and reduced subsidies.

Once upon a time, it was a principle of conservative budget analysis that the federal government ought to impose user fees wherever possible, because it was unfair for taxpayers to subsidize programs that benefited only a limited group of people or businesses. … The Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Budget Office periodically publish reports on user fees that can easily be consulted for ideas on how they can be improved. Budget conventions that treat such fees as reduced spending offer a way out of the budget impasse imposed by the tax pledge. And they could make a major contribution to meeting the $1.5 trillion deficit-reduction target that the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction must meet by Nov. 23.