news-record.com

North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan last week joined a 15-member group of “moderate Democrats” who vow to deliver some fiscally conservative push-back to their party’s leaders on budget matters.

Lead by Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, the group has expressed concern about the amount of spending in President Barack Obama’s tax proposals.

Hagan said Monday that the United States was experiencing a fiscal crisis that called for higher than typical government spending.

But, she added, “I also think we’ve got to look at the long term. ... Obviously long term, I’m looking at not incurring as much debt as we’re talking about.”

One way to interpret Hagan’s participation in the group is to give her some fiscally conservative credibility back home in North Carolina, a state not known for sending the most liberal of politicians to Capitol Hill — paging Jesse Helms.

But the move has rubbed some liberal and/or progressive supporters the wrong way, leading them to question whether Hagan is breaking with the very party leaders — Obama and Sen. Harry Reid — who helped her get elected.

“I think that North Carolinians elected me to work for their best interests,” Hagan insisted Monday, “not for the interest of a single party.”

Hagan appointment panel

In other Hagan-related news, North Carolina’s junior senator says she’ll rely on the advice of a four-member panel to make recommendations on judicial appointments.

The system, she said, is one that some senators from other states have used.

Part and parcel of that effort is filling vacancies on the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. At least one vacancy there is seen as a North Carolina seat and has been open since 1994. However, judges from other states are eligible to fill the seat.

Hagan argues that a case could be that more seats should go to judges from the Tar Heel state.

“We’ve taken a backseat to partisan bickering on both sides of the isle,” Hagan said of the long-term vacancies.

But why does it matter? Shouldn’t a judge from Virginia or Georgia be able to hear a case and decide the law as well as one from North Carolina?

“I think the same could be asked if you had a senator from South Carolina or Georgia,” Hagan said, making the point that all politics is local. “How would the citizens of North Carolina feel about them representing their interests?”

The bonus tax

Last week, the House voted 328-93 in favor of a 90 percent tax on bonuses to executives paid by any company that received federal bailout funding under TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Specifically, it was aimed at AIG, which paid out $165 million in bonuses, some to folks in the very division that caused all the trouble for the company.

Democratic Reps. Brad Miller of Raleigh and Mel Watt of Charlotte voted for the bill. Republican Reps. Howard Coble of Greensboro and Virginia Foxx of Winston-Salem voted against.

“We can recoup this money in a constitutional manner,” Foxx said on the House floor.

In a statement on his Web site, Coble said this about AIG: “Ultimately I think this will be resolved through AIG’s contractual obligations to the TARP, which should require AIG to return this money, with interest, by a date certain.”

Other votes

• The House passed the GIVE Act, HR 1388, to encourage more people to enter national service programs such as AmeriCorp, 321-105.

Miller and Watt voted for the bill. Coble and Foxx voted against.

• The Senate voted 77-20 for HR 146, Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, which adds territory to the national parks system.

Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, voted for the bill. Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, voted against.

• The Senate voted 61-31 to confirm Elena Kagan of Massachusetts to be solicitor general. The solicitor general is the government’s chief appellate lawyer, frequently representing the federal government in the Supreme Court.

Hagan voted to confirm. Burr voted against confirmation.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com