WASHINGTON - After upsetting some conservatives by signaling an openness to higher payroll taxes for Social Security, Republican John McCain gave the simplest of answers Tuesday when asked if he would raise taxes as president.

“No,” McCain said sternly when the question was put to him by a young girl at a meeting in Sparks, Nev.

Despite previous vows not to raise taxes of any kind, McCain had caught some Republicans by surprise by suggesting the opposite.

Speaking with reporters on his campaign bus on July 9, he cited a need to shore up Social Security. “I cannot tell you what I would do, except to put everything on the table,” he said.

He went a step farther Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” in response to a question about payroll tax increases.

“There is nothing that’s off the table. I have my positions, and I’ll articulate them. But nothing’s off the table,” McCain said. “I don’t want tax increases. But that doesn’t mean that anything is off the table.”

That comment drew a strong response from the Club for Growth, a Washington anti-tax group. McCain’s comments, the group said in a letter to the Arizona senator, are “shocking because you have been adamant in your opposition to raising taxes under any circumstances.”

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written by Andrew