Fighting for Our Future:
Wrapping Up Senator Hagan's
Budget Listening Tour

With Washington-as-usual partisanship stalling progress on serious deficit reduction and job creation, I recently convened listening sessions to hear directly from my best advisors – the people of North Carolina.

My "Fighting for our Future" Budget Listening Tour made stops in Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte and Wilmington, and the difference between what I hear in North Carolina and what I see in Washington is astonishing.

Senator Hagan's Budget Listening
Tour stop in Raleigh

For too long in Washington, partisan bickering has prevented real deficit reduction. In North Carolina, the vast consensus was that we must work together, Democrats and Republicans, to craft a responsible plan to reduce the deficit that is balanced, bipartisan and calls for shared sacrifice.

Before being elected to the U.S. Senate, I served as Co-Chair of the state Budget Committee. In North Carolina we balance our budget, and I know that there are always tough choices to make. But kicking the can down the road one more time in Washington is simply not an option.

That is why I advocated for the creation of the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, co-chaired by North Carolina's own Erskine Bowles, which made important progress in beginning to tackle this very serious issue. I believe real action to address our staggering debt must be a bipartisan priority.

As budget negotiations move forward, please know that I am taking the input I received on my listening tour back to the table in Washington. I remain committed to working in a bipartisan manner on reducing the debt without forgetting our North Carolina values. And I will continue fighting for our future.

Sincerely,

What North Carolinians Told Hagan

• "We need to be fair, smart, balanced and tough," said Brian Toomey, CEO, Piedmont Health Services, during the listening session in Raleigh. "We as Americans need to be part of the solution - instead of pointing fingers - as we confront our mounting debt."


• "We all agreed that a grassroots bipartisan approach is needed to get our fiscal house in order. Specifically, helping small business owners hire workers, invest in plants and equipment, and grease the skids to get this economy going," said Jim Marshall, President & CEO, Blue Harbor Bank, in Charlotte.


• Shirley Frye, a community leader and former educator in Greensboro, said the commitment to schools has to remain a major budgetary focus. "We recognize that you have a very complex responsibility ... but as my Senator ... select those things that would best benefit North Carolina."

Hagan on Senate Floor:
"Washington needs to take a lesson from North Carolina"

Following the completion of her Budget Listening Tour, Senator Hagan spoke on the Senate floor to bring the ideas she gathered from North Carolinians back to the debate in Washington.

Hagan's Debt Crisis Roundtable at UNC
July 25, 2011

• On July 25, Hagan will convene a roundtable on our debt crisis at UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan Institute. This event is the capstone of the Senator's budget listening tour.


• The debt roundtable is gathering some of the foremost experts on our budget and deficit crisis to help provide perspective and insight. Joining Hagan are former congressional budget leaders and fiscal budget experts including:
  • John Spratt, former chairman, U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee;
  • John Weinberg, director of research, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond;
  • Mark W. Yusko, chief executive officer and chief investment officer, Morgan Creek Capital Management LLC.
  
  
• The Debt Crisis Roundtable event is free and open to the public. For more information about the event click here. RSVP to obtain parking instructions: rsvpkenan@unc.edu