Nearly a month ago, Senator Kay Hagan sided with some of the most partisan Democrats in the Senate to allow student loan rates to double. Hagan and her fellow Democrats used North Carolina students as political pawns to manufacture a crisis. Things went south this week, however, when Hagan found herself at odds with the majority of the Senate – and even further to the left of President Obama – when a true bipartisan coalition, led by North Carolina’s senior Senator Richard Burr, negotiated a bipartisan compromise to ensure student loan rates do not increase. With the jig up, Hagan had no choice but to flip-flop and come out in support of Sen. Burr’s bipartisan legislation she did everything to kill just last week.

For months, Kay Hagan led efforts to manufacture a crisis on North Carolina students. Why? Because New York Senator Chuck Schumer told her to.  Schumer said the student loan issue was “a messaging winner for Democrats.”  Meanwhile, college students were without a sound solution to prevent loan rates from doubling.

Kay Hagan actively led the efforts to block relief with a purely partisan band aid instead of supporting a bipartisan, permanent fix to help college students who are already struggling to stay above water. The Washington Post called Hagan’s bill a “pathetic non-solution“.  Yet, the bipartisan solution to this problem was right in front of Kay Hagan and she ignored it.

“Kay Hagan is one of a few people directly responsible for the student loan rate increases and is part of the problem in Washington rather than the solution,” said NRSC Press Secretary Brook Hougesen. “Instead of working to forge a bipartisan compromise to help already struggling students, Hagan instead demanded passage of her own legislation which was so liberal and extreme that even Barack Obama opposed it.  Hagan’s latest flip-flop doesn’t mask the failure of her own legislation and reinforces just how ineffective she actually is.  Instead of acting as the ‘independent voice’ that she promised North Carolinians she’d be, Hagan used students as political pawns in her reelection bid. Shame on her.”