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Republican Bob Turner, running to replace Anthony Weiner in a heavily Democratic Queens-Brooklyn district, is urging voters upset with President Obama to deliver a stinging rebuke — by supporting Turner over Democrat David Weprin.
Turner painted Weprin as Obama’s twin.
“It’s Obama-Weprin,” Turner said during a Post editorial-board meeting yesterday. “It’s Weprin-Obama. You want the status quo, that’s your guy. ”
As a case in point, Turner pointed out that Assemblyman Weprin is parroting Obama’s proposal to hike taxes on the wealthy, many of whom run businesses that employ workers, during a sluggish economy.
Such a tax hike would be a job killer, he said.
“That’s the Obama agenda,” Turner said.
“A tax increase now on the upper end is going to result in less business growth and more unemployment. We’re looking to grow things.”
Turner said he supports targeted tax incentives — to prod corporations to free up trillions of dollars in profits to invest in capital infrastructure and the economy.
He also supports an easier regulatory environment to produce thousands of energy-industry jobs — including allowing underground hydrofracking for natural gas upstate.
Turner pledged to push the federal government to rein in the deficit even if that means touching the “third rail” of politics — cutting spending on entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security that have strong and active political constituencies.
Turner said he would protect people 55 and older by exempting them from an overhaul of the two federal entitlement programs.
Asked if the eligibility age should be raised for people under 55, Turner said, “That’s one of the easy ones.”
He said an increase in Medicare co-payments also has to be considered.
A recent Siena College poll on the Sept. 13 special election for Weiner’s seat found Turner trailing Weprin by only 6 points in a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 3 to 1.
In another swipe at the president, Turner said Obama’s Mideast policy has had a “negative effect on Israel.”
He blasted the president for pressing Israel to negotiate based on its 1967 borders in peace talks with the Palestinians, and for giving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the cold shoulder.
Weprin, too, has criticized the president’s policy on Israel.
Turner, 70, a retired cable TV executive and Army veteran, challenged Weiner last year and garnered 40 percent of the vote despite being vastly outspent.
A father of five children, Turner has produced such hit shows as Jerry Springer, “Baywatch” and Phil Donahue.