In an unfortunate twist to the New York U.S. Senate Republican primary, Bob Turner admits that he supports higher taxes. To date, fellow Republican primary candidate Wendy Long is the only candidate to make a written commitment to New York taxpayers that she will not raise taxes if elected in November.

In an interview with New York’s “Capital Tonight,” Bob Turner said that Republicans “can’t continue to uniformly oppose tax increases in order to solve the debt issue.” He went on to state that “there will certainly be compromises.” When pressed as to whether that meant tax increases, Turner responded by saying, “Whatever has to be done.”

It seems as if Representative Turner’s short tenure in Congress has changed him for the worse. Not only does he think that taxpayers can afford higher taxes, but that reaching across the aisle for this purpose is a noble cause.

Adding insult to injury, Turner went further in a one-on-one interview. He stated, “Let’s not dig in, put ourselves in a position where we can’t move forward.” Although President Obama’s campaign reelection team has yet to comment on the fact that Turner is borrowing their campaign slogan, it is clear that Turner has taken a page out of national Democrats’ campaign book. Recently, compromise has become a code word for tax increases. It seems that both the President and Bob Turner are interested in the same thing: higher taxes.

 “By refusing to take tax hikes off the table, Bob Turner demonstrates that he is out of touch with New York taxpayers,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. “No matter how much money he spends, Turner cannot hide from the fact that he supports higher taxes that are detrimental to New York small businesses and families.”

“Before next month’s primary, voters deserve to know specifically which tax hikes Bob Turner supports. All we can assume at this point is that he is being vague so that he can wait for cues from national Democrats about the minority party’s 2012 tax hike agenda.”

 “I applaud Wendy Long for her dedication to the taxpayers of New York,” continued Norquist. “By taking the Pledge, Ms. Long understands that politicians must focus on Washington’s out of control spending and not higher taxes. I only hope that Bob Turner will reconsider his own misguided higher tax agenda.”

[PDF of Press Release]

Posted by Paul Blair on Tuesday, May 29, 2012 5:54 PM EDT

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