Kay Hagan easily defeated Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina to become junior senator

November 23, 9:26 AMProgressive Politics ExaminerKaren Harper

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Kay Hagan, North Carolina's new Senator-elect

Kay Hagan defeated Elizabeth Dole to become junior senator representing North Carolina in Washington.  Before defeating Dole, Hagan was state senator in the North Carolina General Assembly where she supported legislation raising teachers' salaries and increasing funding for early childhood education.

Her run against Elizabeth Dole for the seat in Washington took a nasty turn when Hagan's opponent put out television advertising calling Hagan "Godless".  The negative advertising backfired and Hagan subsequently won.

On the Issues:

Budget and Economy

Every family in North Carolina pays $1,500 in taxes each year just to pay the interest on our national debt. As a budget expert in the state Senate, Kay has balanced the North Carolina budget and pushed reform measures to open the budgeting process to the public. In the U.S. Senate, she will work towards a balanced budget and fiscal constraints, and she will demand we follow pay-as-you-go rules. She will be a diligent steward of taxpayers’ money by fighting against wasteful federal contracts and finding ways to reduce our national debt.

Kay supports tax cuts for middle class families instead of borrowing billions from China to pay for reckless tax cuts for the extremely wealthy who never asked for them. She favors closing loopholes for big, multinational corporations so we can make sure small businesses and entrepreneurs can thrive. Kay will also continue the work she has started in the state Senate by supporting economic programs to create and keep good jobs right here in North Carolina.

Health Care: Affordable Solutions for Healthy Families

The climbing unemployment rate and the increasing number of baby boomers entering retirement means that fewer Americans will have access to health coverage because they are no longer eligible for an employer-based health plan. Every year these problems get worse, and they’ll keep getting worse until we reverse this downward spiral and make sure all Americans have access to affordable health care.

Kay believes that by investing in higher quality and more efficient care, focusing on keeping people healthy instead of treating them when they are sick, and streamlining the system to cut down on costs and waste, we can make health care more affordable and accessible for families and businesses.

Seniors: Promoting a Secure and Healthy Retirement for Seniors

Protect Social Security for Today’s Seniors and Future Generations. Social Security has been a vital safety net for America’s seniors for over 70 years, and Kay will forcefully oppose any efforts to privatize Social Security. While Social Security’s finances are secure for at least another generation, Kay recognizes the importance of guaranteeing the long-term solvency of the system without limiting eligibility or reducing benefits. She will use the lessons she learned as the co-author of five consecutive balanced budgets in North Carolina to help get our fiscal house in order, which is the critical first step in protecting Social Security. Kay recognizes that Congress will not be able to develop a long-term solution to Social Security without slashing wasteful spending, demanding enforcement of pay-as-you-go rules, and closing tax loopholes for big, multinational corporations so that we can stop borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars from foreign countries. The financial crisis on Wall Street demonstrates the danger of gambling seniors’ Social Security money in the volatile financial markets.

Protect Working Seniors. Approximately one-fourth of all seniors ages 65-69 continue to work rather than retire. These experienced and skilled workers contribute significantly to their companies and to the economy as a whole. In fact, as the working-age population declines, seniors will be increasingly called upon to work later in life in order to provide for their families and to have the ability to comfortably retire. Kay believes that our government should encourage employers to compensate these employees at a fair value and should prohibit unlawful discrimination against older workers.

KAY HAGAN’S PLAN TO IMPROVE EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY

Kay knows that America can recapture its economic preeminence by reforming our education system for the 21st Century and making sure students have the chance to pursue higher education and advanced training. The combination of high expectations, effective teaching, a rich and rigorous curriculum, and ample access to higher education has repeatedly proven to be the most effective recipe for improvements in student achievement and economic dynamism. Under Kay’s leadership, North Carolina has implemented many of these solutions and, as a result, our attention to preparing students at all levels of learning is a model for the rest of the country to follow, though there is still progress to be made. In the Senate, Kay will work hard to make sure that parents can be confident that their children will have the chance to pursue their dreams just as far as their talents and hard work will take them.

Kay will work hard to:

• Expand Access To Pre-K Education
• Fix No Child Left Behind
• Build a Strong Foundation by Providing High-Quality High School Education
• Ensure Our Educational System Continues to Focus on 21st-Century Skill Sets That Prepare Students to Compete in a Global Economy
• Lower Costs and Increase Availability of College

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