Bob Turner announced his support today for a Balanced Budget Amendment and called his opponent, Democrat David Weprin, to do the same.

“My opponent, David Weprin is a career politician who has sought four public offices in two years,” Turner said in a statement. “He has saddled Queens and Brooklyn taxpayers with debt and overspending in every office he has held, and he has learned nothing from it. The nation is now paying the price for the irresponsible votes of career politicians like him.”

The agreement to raise the federal debt ceiling doesn’t include a Balanced Budget Amendment, which would require the federal government to balance its books every years, as many states do.  Congress still could pass a BBA, but it would have to be ratified by two-thirds of the states.

Among the many divisions in this race–Republican vs. Democrats, over the size of the social safety net, over who is a better defender of Israel–is the question over whether or not a longtime pol or a longtime businessman make a better legislator. Weprin has been touting his time as chair of the Finance Committee in the City Council, and as is plain in the quote above, Turner is trying to tie him to legislative dysfunction and present himself as independent businessman.

Full statement below:

The United States is borrowing 40 cents of every dollar it spends, and that debt is strangling economic expansion and job creation in New York and elsewhere. As a member of the United State Congress, my chief priority will be fixing this economy, and that begins with addressing the nation’s long-term debt. Toward that end, I will support a Balanced Budget Amendment in Congress. America’s future – the future of our children and grandchildren – will remain in doubt until we cap spending in this country to reasonable levels. Doing will so will stabilize U.S. markets and put job-creating capital back into the marketplace.

 

“My opponent, David Weprin is a career politician who has sought four public offices in two years. He has saddled Queens and Brooklyn taxpayers with debt and overspending in every office he has held, and he has learned nothing from it. The nation is now paying the price for the irresponsible votes of career politicians like him. Every Brooklyn and Queens family is forced to balance its household budget with less today; it’s time that the federal government had to do it, too.

 

“I challenge Mr. Weprin to join me today in supporting a Balanced Budget Amendment.”

 

Follow David Freedlander via RSS.