House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's (R-Va.) decision to withdraw from bipartisan budget talks demonstrates the influence of anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist over the Republican Party, a leading Democrat charged Thursday.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a participant in the debt talks being led by Vice President Biden, said he was "disappointed" Cantor left the talks and accused GOP leaders of being more interested in pleasing Norquist than they are balancing budgets.

"The reality here is that, until our Republican colleagues are more concerned about the need to reduce the deficit than they're worried about what Grover Norquist will say, we're going to have a really difficult time reducing the deficit," Van Hollen told reporters during a press conference in the Capitol.