Democrats waging a take-no-prisoners approach to the fiscal cliff are showing signs of flexibility on one key issue: just how much money the government should rake in.

It’s a marked difference from the hard line the party is taking in favor of raising tax rates on top-wage earners and against calls for major entitlement changes.

But several Democratic lawmakers say they aren’t necessarily wedded to the multitrillion-dollar revenue target President Barack Obama is setting — which Republicans dismiss as unrealistic — as long as they get the prize of tax rate increases on the wealthy and ward off big rewrites of Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security.

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Much of the year-end tax debate has thus far focused on how far Republicans are willing to move toward tax hikes. And House Democrats — like almost everyone else on Capitol Hill — remain on the outside of talks between House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Obama. But their importance could skyrocket if the speaker and the president are able to negotiate a year-end budget package. Democrats in the chamber — mostly relegated to afterthoughts after losing the majority in 2010 — will almost certainly be called on to move the package across the finish line to offset GOP defections.