Of the senate and the house of representatives. President observed in his opening remarks that, once again our democracy has spoken. He urged his fellow citizens to rise above Party Politics to meet the challenges of a new era, declaring that government r should be smaller and smarter. Members of congress, i have t the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the president of the United States. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Please. Mr. President , mr. Speaker, members of the 104th congress, sanc my fellow americans again we are here in the sanctuary of me be democracygi and once again, our democracy has spoken. And so let me begin by congratulating all of you here in the 104th congress and congratulating you, mr. Speaker. If we agree on nothing else tonight, we must agree that the American People certainly voted for change in 1992 and in 1994. And as i look out at you i know how some of you must have felt in 1992. I must say that in both years, we didnt hear america singing. We heard america shouting. And now all of us republicans w and democratsil alike, must say we hear you, we will Work Together to earn the job you have given are us. Be while we are the keepers of a sacred trust and we must be faithful to it in this new and t very demanding era, over 200 jo years agoin our founders changed the entire course of Human History by joining together to create a new country based on a single powerful idea. We hold these truths to be or wit selfevident that allh men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It has fallen to every generation since then to ing in preserve that idea the american idea, and to deepen and expand its meaning in new and different times. To lincoln and to his congress, to preserve the union and to end slavery. Rain t to thee door roosevelt and re woodrow wilson, to restrain the to abuses and excesses of the industrial revolution, and to ure assert our leadership in the world. To Franklin Roosevelt to fight the failure and pain of the and Great Depression and to win our countrys great struggle against fascism. And to all our president s since, to fight the cold war. Par especially, i recall, too who struggled to fight that cold war party. In partnership with congresses sum where the majority was of a different party. To harry truman who summoned us to unparalleled prosperity at home and who built the to architecture of the cold war. And to Ronald Reagan whom we he wish well tonight and who exhorted us to carry on until the Twilight Struggle against communism was won. El in another time of change and challenge, i had the honor to be the first president to be my, th elected in the post cold war arallele era. An era marked by the global economy, the information revolution, unparalleled change in opportunity and in security for the American People. Restore i came to this Hallowed Chamber and to two years ago on a mission to ce restore the American Dream for ongest all our people and to make sure that we move into the 21st i century still the strongest ackle force for freedom and democracy in the entire world. I was determined then to tackle mad the tough problems too long ignored. E in this effort, i am frank to say that i have made my mistakes. And i have learned again the y importance of humility in all than human itendeavor. But i am also proud to say tonight that our country is stronger than it was two years ago. And record w Numbers Record numbers of americans are succeeding in the new global economy. We are at peace and we are a force for peace and freedom t throughout the world. Combi we have almost 6 million new jobs since i became president and we have the lowest combined rate of unemployment and inflation in 25 years. Pand t our businesses are more eets productive and here we have itizen worked to bring ths e deficit down need to expand trade, to put more ld the police on our streets to give our citizens more of the tools he they need to get an education and to rebuild their own communities. But the rising tide is not lifting all those. And while our nation is enjoying peace and prosperity, too many of our people are still working harder and harder for less and ur peo less. While our businesses are restructuring and growing more productive and competitive, too many of our people still cant be sure of having a job next year or even next month. Re pre and far more than our material riches are threatened, things far more precious to us. Our children our families, our uting values. Our civil life is suffering in America Today. Citizens are working together less andst shouting at each other more. The common bonds of community which had been the great fr strength of ouray country from its very beginning are badly frayed. Velt what are we to do about it . Nation more than 60 years ago at the dawn of another new era, president roosevelt told our nation new conditions impose new requirements on government and those who conduct government. To from that simple proposition, he shaped the new deal which helped to restore our nation to prosperity and defined the relationship between our people and the government for half a ent century. That approach worked in its nditio time but we today, we face a very different time and very a different conditions. We are moving from an Industrial Age built on years of sweat to an Information Age demanding skills and learning and flexibility. Our government once aa champion of National Purpose is now seen by many as simply a captive of narrow interest putting more burdens on our citizens rather than equipping them to get ahead. The values that used to hold us so all together t seem to be coming apart. So tonight we must forge a new era w social compact to meet the challenges of this time. Nment as we enter a new era, we need a new set of understandings, not just with government but even t i wa more important with one another as americans. Thats what i want to talk with you about tonight. I call it the new kovcovenant. But its grounded in a very, very old idea that all americans have not just a right but a to solemn responsibility to rise as their far as their god given talents and determination can take them and to give Something Back to and re their communities and their t country in return. Ot opportunity and responsibility. They go hand in hand. We cant have one without the other, and our National Community cant hold together without both. Our our new covenant is a new set of understandings for how we can equip our people to meet the works challenges of a new economy, howifferent we can change the way our Government Works to fit a different time. And above all, how we can repair the damaged bonds in our society in and come together behind our common purpose. An we must have dramatic change in our economy, our government, and ourselves. My fellow americans, without ip regard to party let us rise to ide, a the occasion. Let us put aside partisanship and pettiness and pride. As we embark on this new course, let us put our Country First l remembering that regardless of te party label, we are all ple one. Americans. And let the final test of everything we do be a simple one is it good for the American People. Let me begin by saying that we cannot ask americans to be better citizens if we are not better servants. You made a good start by passing that law which applies to congress, all the laws you put on the private sector. I was proud to sign it yesterday. But we have a lot more to do before people really trust the way things work around here. Three times as many lobbyists are in the streets and corridorsr ca of washingtonpi as were here 20 ty years ago. Where the American People look at ut their capital and they see a city where the well protected l and well connected withef work the system, but the interests of ordinary citizens are often leftll out. As the newdo congress opened its doors, lobbyists were still the doing business as usual. Havent the gifts the trips. All the things that people are rtunit concerned about havent stopped. R twice this month you missed opportunities to stop these practices. I know there were other considerations in those votes h but iav want to use something thattives heard my republican friends say from time to time it doesnt have to be a law for everything. So tonight i ask you to just stop taking the lobbyist perks. Just stop. Signal t we dont have to wait for legislation to pass to send a strong signal to the American People that things are really changing. But i alsoat hope you will send me the strongest possible lobby reform bill and ill sign that, too. We should we should require lobbyists to tell the people for whom they work, what theyre spending, what they want. Igns we should also curb the role of big money in elections by capping the cost of campaigns and limiting the influence of pacs. And as i have said for three years, we should work to open the airwaves so that they can be gi an instrument of democracy, not a weapon of destruction, by giving free tv time to candidates for public office. The when the last Congress Killed political reform last year, it was reported in the press that the lobbyists actually stood in f the halls of this sacred abou building and cheered. This year, lets give the folks at home something to cheer about. More important, i think we all agree that we have to change the way the Government Works. Lets make it smaller less costly and smarter, leaner, not meaner. I just told the speaker the equal time doctrine is alive and well. The new covenant approach to governing is as different from the old bureaucratic way as the computer is from the manual intere typewriter. The old way ofst governing around here protected organized pe interests. We should look out for the wa interests ofy ordinary people. Intere the old way divided us by interests, constituency or class. The new covenant way should unite us behind a common vision of whats best for our country. The old way stretches services through large topdown inflexible bureaucracies. The new doveuew kov nabt way should inject choice and competition to citizens and individual responsibility into national policy. The old way of governing around here actually seemed to reward failure. The new covenant way should have he builtin incentivesre to reward success. Communit the old way was centralized hered in washington. The new covenant way must take hold in the communities all across america and we should help them to do that. To our job here is to expand liv opportunity, notes bureaucracy. To empower people to make the most of their own lives. And to enhance our security herehat at home and abroad. We must not ask government to do what we should do for ourselves. We should rely on government as a partner to help us to do more for ourselves and for each other. I hope very much that as we debate these specific and exciting matters we can go beyond the sterile discussion between the illusion that there hat is somehow a program for every the problem on the one hand, and the h other illusion that the government is a source of every rid problem we have. Our job is to get rid of yesterdays government so that our own people can meet todays and tomorrows needs and we ought to do it together. You know, for years before i became president i heard others say they would cut government and how bad it was. But not much happened. We actually did it. We cut over a quarter of a trillion dollars in spending. More than 300 domestic programs. More than 100,000 positions from the federal bureaucracy in the last two years alone. Baps based on decisions already made, weve have cut a total of positions from the government making it the smallest its been since john kennedy was president by the time i come here next year. Under the leadership of Vice President gore our initiatives have already saved taxpayers 63 billion. The age of the 500 hammer and the ashtray you can break on David Letterman is gone. Deadwood programs like mohair subsidies are gone. Weve streamlined the Agriculture Department by reducing it by more than 1,200 offices. Weve slashed the Small Business loan form from an inch thick to a single page. Weve thrown away the governments 10,000page personnel manual. And the government is working better in important ways. Fooe fema, federal Emergency Management agency has gone from being a disaster to helping people in disasters. You can ask the farmers in the middle west who fought the flood there or the people in california whos fought the earthquakes and fires. Theyll tell you that. Government workers working hand in hand with private business rebuilt californias frk turd freeways in record time and under budget. And all but 1 of the 5,600 schools damaged in the earthquake are back in business. Now, there are a lot of other things that i could talk about. I want to just mention one because it will be discussed here in the next few weeks. University administrators all over the country have told me that they are saving weeks and weeks of bureaucratic time now because of our direct college loan program which makes College Loans cheaper and more affordable with better repayment terms for students costs the government less and cuts out paperwork and bureaucracy for the government and for the universities. We shouldnt cap that program. We should give every college in america the opportunity to be a part of it. Previous Government Programs gathered dust. The reinventing government report is getting results. And were not through. Theres going to be a second round of reinventing government. We proposed to cut 130 billion in spending by shrinking departments, extending our freeze on domestic spending cutting 60 Public Housing programs down to three, getting rid of over 100 programs we do not need like the interstate Commerce Commission and the helium reserve program. And were working on getting rid of unnecessary regulations and making them more sensible. The programs and regulations that have outlived their usefulness should go. We have to cut yesterdays government to help solve tomorrows problems. And we need to get government closer to the people its meant to serve. We need to help move programs down to the point where states and communities and private citizens in the private sector can do a better job. If they can do it we ought to let them do it. We should get out of the way and let them do what they can do better. Taking power away from federal bureaucracies and giving it back to communities and individuals is something everyone should be able to be for. Its time for congress to stop passing on to the states the cost of decisions we make here in washington. I know there are still serious differences over the details of the Unfunded Mandates legislation. But i want to work with you to make sure we pass a reasonable bill which will protect the National Interests and give justified relief where we need to give it. For years, congress concealed in the budget scores of pet spending projects. Last year was no different. There was a Million Dollars to study stress in plants. And 12 million for a tick Removal Program that didnt work. Its hard to remove ticks, those of us that have had them know. But, ill tell you something. If youll give me the light out of a veto, ill remove some of that unnecessary spending. But but. But i think we should all remember, and almost all of us would agree that government still has important responsibilities. Our young people, we should think of this when we cut. Our young people hold our future in their hands. We still owe a debt to our veterans. And our Senior Citizens have made us what we are. Now my budget cuts a lot. But it protects education, veterans, social security, and medicare, and i hope you will do the same thing. You should and i hope you will. And when we give more flexibility to the states, let us remember that there are certain fundamental National Needs that should be addressed in every state, north and south, east and west. Immunization against childhood disease. School lunches in all our schools. Head start medical care and nutrition for pregnant women and infants. Medical care and nutrition for pregnant women and infants. All these things. All of these things are in the National Interest. I applaud your desire to get rid of costly and unnecessary regulations. But when we deregulate lets remember what National Action in the National Interest has given us. Safer food for our families. Safer toys for our children. Safer Nursing Homes for our parents. Safer cars and highways. And safer work places. Cleaner air and cleaner water. Do we need common sense and fairness in our regulations . You bet we do. But we can have common sense and still provide for safe drinking water. We can have fairness and still clean up toxic dumps. And we ought to do it. Should we cut the deficit more . Well of course we should. Of course we should. But we can bring it down in a way that still protects our economic recovery and does not unduly punish people who should not be punished but instead should be helped. I know many of you in this Chamber Support the balanced budget amendment. I certainly want to balance the budget. Our administration has done more to bring the budget down and to save money than any in a very, very long time. If you believe passing this amendment is the right thing to do, then you have to be straight with the American People. They have a right to know what youre going to cut what taxes youre going to raise, how it is going to affect them. We should be doing things in the open around here. For example, everybody ought to know if this proposal is going to endanger social security. I would oppose that and i think most americans would. Nothing has done more to undermine our sense of common responsibility than our failed welfare system. This is one of the problems we have to face here in washington in our new covenant. It rewards welfare overwork. It undermines family values. It lets millions of parents get away without paying their child support. It keeps a minority but a significant minority of the people on welfare trapped on it for a very long time. I worked on this problem for a long time. Nearly 15 years now. As a governor i had the honor of working with the Reagan Administration to write the last welfare reform bill back in 1988. In the last two years we made a good start yet continue to work on welfare reform. Our administration gave two dozen states the right to slash through federal rules and regulations to reform their own welfare systems and to try to promote work and responsibility over welfare and dependency. Last year i introduced the most sweeping welfare reform plan ever presented by an administration. We have to make welfare what it was meant to be a second chance, not a way of life. We have to help those on welfare move to work as quickly as possible to provide child care and teach them skills if thats what they need for up to two years. After that there ought to be a simple hard rule. Anyone who can work must go to work. If a parent isnt paying child support, they should be forced to pay. We should suspend drivers license, track them across state lines, make them work off what they owe. Thats what we should do. Governments do not raise children. People do and the parents must take responsibility for the children they bring into this world. I want to work with all of you to pass welfare reform but our goal must be to liberate people and lift them up from independence independence, to responsible parenting. Our goal should not be to punish them because they happen to be poor. We should we should require work mutual responsibility. But we shouldnt cut people off just because theyre young or poor, or even because theyre married. We should require Young Mothers to live at home with their parents or supervised settings requiring them to finish school. But we shouldnt put them and their children out on the street. And i know all the arguments pro and con, and i have read and thought about there for a long time. I still dont think we can in good conscience punish four children for poor children for the mistakes of their parents. Poor children for the mistakes of their parents. Now, my fellow americans, every single survey shows that all the American People care about this, without regard to party or race or region. So let this be the year we end welfare as we know it. But also let this be the year that we are all able to stop using this issue to divide america. No one is more eager to end welfare welfare. I may be the only president whos actually had the opportunity to sit in a welfare office, whos actually spent hours and hours talking to people on welfare. And i am telling you, the people who are trapped on it know it doesnt work. They also want to get off. So we can promote together education and work and good parenting. I have no problem with punishing bad behavior or the refusal to be a worker or a student or a responsible parent. I just dont want to punish poverty and past mistakes. All of us have made our mistakes, and none of us can change our yesterdays. But every one of us can change our tomorrows. And americas best example of that may be lynn woolsey who worked her way off welfare. I know the members of this congress are concerned about crime, as are all the citizens of our country. I remind you that last year we passed a very tough crime bill. Longer sentence, three strikes and youre out, almost 60 new Capital Punishment offenses, more prisons more prevention, 100,000 more police. And we paid for it all by reducing the size of the federal bureaucracy and giving the money back to local communities to lower their crime rate. There may be other things we can do to be tougher on crime, to be smarter with crime, to help lower that rate first. Well, if there are, lets talk about them and lets do them. But lets not go back on the things that we did last year that we know worked that we know worked because local Law Enforcement officers tell us that we did the right thing, because local Community Leaders who worked for years and years to lower their crime rate tell us that they work. Lets look at the experience of our cities and our rural areas where the crime rate has gone down and ask the people who did it how they did it and if what we did last year supports the decline in the crime rate. And i am convinced that it does. Let us not go back on it. Lets stick with it implement it. Weve got four more hard years of work to do to do that. I dont want to destroy the good atmosphere in the room or in the country tonight, but i have to mention one issue that divided this body greatly last year. The last Congress Also passed the brady bill, and in the crime bill the ban on 19 assault weapons. I dont think it is a secret to anybody in this room that several members of the last congress who voted for that arent here tonight because they voted for it. And i know therefore that some of you who are here because they voted for it are under enormous pressure to repeal it. I just have to tell you how i feel about it. The members of congress who voted for that bill and i, would never do anything to infringe on the right to keep and bear arms to hunt and to engage in other appropriate sporting activities. Ive done it since i was a boy and im going to keep right on doing it until i cant do it anymore. But a lot of people laid down their seats in congress so that Police Officers and kids wouldnt have to lay down their lives under a hail of assault weapon attack and i will not let that be repealed. I will not let it be repealed. Id like to talk about a couple of other issues we have to deal with. I want us to cut more spending but i hope we wont cut government perhaps that help to prepare us for the new economy, promote responsibility and are organized from the grassroots up not by federal bureaucracies. The very best example of this is the National Service corps. Americorps americorps. It passed with strong bipartisan support, and now there are 20,000 americans more than ever served in one year in the peace corps, working all over this country, helping people person to person in local grassroots volunteer groups solving problems and in the process, earning some money for their education. This is citizenship at its best. Its good for the americorps members, but it is good for the rest of us, too. Its the essence of the new covenant and we shouldnt stop it. All americans, not only in the states most heavily affected with being but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The Public Service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. Thats why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more, by hiring a Record Number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring by borrowing Welfare Benefits to illegal aliens. In the budget i will present to you, we will try to do more to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes, to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace as recommended by the commission as headed by congresswoman barbara jordan. We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately selfdefeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years and we must do more to stop it. The most important job of our government in this new era is to empower the American People to succeed in the global economy. America has always been a land of opportunity, a land where if you work hard you can get ahead. Weve become a great middle class country. Middle class values sustain us. We must expand that middle class and shrink the under class as we do everything that we can to support the millions of americans who are already successful in the new economy. America is once again the worlds strongest economic power, almost 6 million new jobs in the last two years exports booming, inflation down. Highwage jobs are coming back. A Record Number of american entrepreneurs are living the American Dream. If we want it to stay that way, those who work and lift our nation must have more of its benefits. Today too many of those people are left out, working harder for less. They have less security, less income, less security that they can even afford a vacation much less college for their kids or retirement for themselves. We cannot let this continue. If we dont act our economy will probably keep doing what its been doing since about 1978 when the Income Growth began to go to those at the very top of our economic scale and the people in the vast middle got very little growth and people who worked like crazy but were on the bottom then fell even further and further behind in the years afterward. No matter how hard they worked. Weve got to have a government that can be a real partner in making this new economy work for all of our people. A government that helps each an everyone of us to get an education and to have the opportunity to renew our skills. Thats why we work so hard to increase Educational Opportunities in the last two years from head start to Public Schools to apprenticeships for young people who dont go to college, to making College Loans more available and more affordable. Thats the first thing we have to do. Weve got to do something to empower people to improve their skills. Second thing we ought to do is to help people raise their incomes immediately by lowering their taxes. We took the first step in 1993 with a working family tax cut for 15 million families with incomes under 27,000. A tax cut that this year will average about 1,000 a family. And we also gave tax reductions to most small and new businesses. Before we could do more than that we first had to bring down the deficit we inherited and we had to get Economic Growth up. Now weve done both and now we can cut taxes in a more comprehensive way. But tax cuts should reinforce and promote our first obligation to empower our citizens through education and training to make the most of their own lives. The spotlight should shine on those who make the right choices for themselves, their families and their communities. I have proposed the middle class bill of rights which should properly be called the bill of rights and responsibilities, because its provisions only benefit those who are working to educate and raise their children, and to educate themselves. It will therefore give needed tax relief and raise incomes in both the short run and the long run in a way that benefits all of us. There are four provisions. First, a Tax Deduction for all education and training after high school. If you think about it, we permit businesses to deduct their investment. We permit individuals to deduct interest on their home mortgages. But today an education is even more important to the economic well being of our whole country than even those things are. We should do everything we can to encourage it. And i hope you will support it. Second, we ought to cut taxes, 500, for families with children under 13. Third, we ought to foster more savings and personal responsibility by permitting people to establish an individual retirement account and withdraw from it taxfree for the cost of education, health care firsttime home buying or the care of a parent. And fourth, we should pass a gi bill for americas workers. We propose to collapse nearly 70 federal programs and not give the money to the states but give the money directly to the American People. Offer vouchers to them so that they, if theyre laid off or if theyre working for a very low wage 2600 a year for up to two years to go to their local Community Colleges or wherever else they want to get the skills they need to improve their lives. Lets empower people in this way. Move it from the government directly to the workers of america. Now, any one of us can call for a tax cut, but i wont accept one that explodes the deficit or puts our recovery at risk. We ought to pay for our tax cuts fully and honestly. Just two years ago it was an open question whether we would find the strength to cut the deficit. Thanks to the courage of the people who were here then, many of whom didnt return, we did cut the deficit. We began to do what others said would not be done. We cut the deficit by over 600 billion, about 10,000 for every family in this country. Its coming down three years in a row for the First Time Since mr. Truman was president , and i dont think anybody in america wants to let it explode again. In the budget i will send you, the middleclass bill of rights is fully paid for by budget cuts, in bureaucracy, cuts in programs, cuts in special interest subsidies, and the spending cuts will more than double the tax cuts. My budget pays for the middleclass bill of rights without any cuts in medicare, and i will oppose any attempts to pay for tax cuts with medicare cuts. Thats not the right thing to do. I know that a lot of you have your own ideas about tax relief, and some of them i find quite interesting. I really want to work with all of you. My test for our proposals will be will it create jobs and raise income, will it strengthen our families and support our children, is it paid for, will it build the middleclass and shrink the underclass . If it does, ill support it. But if it doesnt, i wont. The goal of building the middleclass and shrinking the underclass is also why i believe that you should raise the minimum wage. Thank you. It rewards work. 2. 5 million americans 2. 5 million americans often women with children are working out there today for 4. 25 an hour. In terms of real buying power, by next year, that minimum wage will be at a 40year low. Thats not my idea of how the new economy ought to work. Now, i studied the arguments and the evidence for and against a minimum wage increase. I believe the weight of the evidence is that a modest increase does not cost jobs and may even lure people back into the job market. But the most important thing is, you cant make a living on 4. 25 an hour. Now, especially if you have children, even with the working families tax cut we passed last year. In the past the minimum wage has been a bipartisan issue, and i think it should be again. So, i want to challenge you to have honest hearings on this, to get together, to find a way to make the minimum wage a living wage. Members of congress have been here less than a month. But by the end of the week, 28 days into the new year, every member of congress will have earned as much in congressional salary as a minimum wage worker makes all year long. Everybody else here, including the president , has Something Else that too Many Americans do without, and thats health care. Now, last year we almost came to blows over health care. But we didnt do anything. And the cold, hard fact is that since last year, since i was here, another 1. 1 million americans in working families have lost their health care. And the cold, hard fact is that many millions more, most of them farmers and Small Business people and selfemployed people, have seen their premiums skyrocket, their copays and deductibles go up. Theres a whole bunch of people in this country that in the statistics have Health Insurance, but really what theyve got is a piece of paper that says they wont lose their home if they get sick. Now, i still believe our country has got to move toward providing Health Security for every American Family but but i know that last year, as the evidence indicates, we bit off more than we could chew. So, im asking you that we Work Together. Lets do it step by step. Lets do whatever we have to do to get something done. Lets at least pass meaningful insurance reform so that no american risks losing coverage for facing skyrocketing prices. That nobody loses their coverage because they face high prices or unavailable insurance when they change jobs or lose a job or a Family Member gets sick. I want to Work Together with all of you who have an interest in this, with the democrats who worked on it last time, with the Republican Leaders like senator dole who has a longtime commitment to Health Care Reform and made some constructive proposals in this area last year. We ought to make sure that selfemployed people in Small Businesses can buy insurance at more affordable rates through voluntary purchasing pool. We ought to help families provide longterm care for a sick parent or a disabled child. We can work to help workers who lose their jobs at least keep their Health Insurance coverage for a year while they look for work, and we can find a way it may take some time, but we can find a way to make sure that our children have health care. You know i think everybody in this room, without regard to party, can be proud of the fact that our country was rated as having the worlds most productive economy for the first time in nearly a decade, but we cant be proud of the fact that were the only wealthy country in the world that has a smaller percentage of the workforce and their children with Health Insurance today than we did ten years ago, the last time we were the most productive economy in the world. So, lets Work Together on this. It is too important for politics as usual. Much of what the American People are thinking about tonight is what weve already talked about. A lot of people think that the security concerns of America Today are entirely internal to our borders, they relate to the security of our jobs and our homes and our incomes and our children, our streets, our health, and protecting those borders. Now that the cold war has passed, its tempting to believe that all of the security issues, with the possible exception of trade, reside here at home, but its not so. Our security still depends upon our continued world leadership for peace and freedom and democracy. We still cant be strong at home unless were strong abroad. The financial crisis in mexico is a case in point. I know its not popular to say it tonight, but we have to act. Not for the mexican people, but for the sake of the millions of americans whose livelihoods are tied to mexicos wellbeing. If we want to conserve american jobs, preserve american exports, safeguard american borders, then we must pass the Stabilization Program and help put mexico back on track. Now, let me repeat. Its not a loan. Its not foreign aid. Its not a bailout. Well be given a guarantee like cosigning a note with good collateral that will cover our risk. This legislation is the right thing for america. Thats why the bipartisan leadership has supported it. And i hope you in congress will pass it quickly. It is in our interests, and we can explain it to the American People, because were going to do it in the right way. You know, tonight this is the first state of the Union Address ever delivered since the beginning of the cold war where not a single Russian Missile is pointed at the children of america. And along with the russians, were on our way to destroying the missiles and the bombers that carry 9,000 nuclear warheads. Weve come so far, so fast in the cold war, its still there and were not finished yet. This year, ill ask the senate to prove s. T. A. R. T. 2 to eliminate the weapons that carry 5,000 more warheads. The United States will lead the charge to extend indefinitely the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty, to end to enact the comprehensive nuclear test ban. And to eliminate chemical weapons. To stop and roll back north koreas potentially Deadly Nuclear program, well continue to implement the agreement weve reached with that nation, its smart, its tough, its a deal based on continuing inspection which safeguards for our allies and ourselves. This year ill submit to congress comprehensive legislation to strengthen our hand in combatting terrorism, whether they strike at home or abroad. The cowards who bombed the World Trade Center found out, this country will hunt down terrorists and bring them to justice. Just this week, another horrendous terrorist act in israel killed 19 and injured scores more. On behalf of the American People and all of you, i send our deepest sympathy to the families of the victims. I know that in the face of such evil, it is hard for the people in the middle east to go forward. But the terrorists represent the past, not the future. We must, and we will, pursue a comprehensive peace between israel and all her neighbors in the middle east. Accordingly, last night i signed an executive order that will block the assets of the United States of the terrorist organization that threaten to disrupt the peace process. It prohibits Financial Transactions with these groups. Tonight i call on our allies and peaceloving nations throughout the world to join us with renewed fervor in a global effort to combat terrorism. We cannot permit the future to be marred by terror and fear an paralysis. Thank you. From the day i took the oath of office, i pledged that our nation would maintain the best equipped, best trained, and best prepared military on earth. We have, and they are. They have managed the dramatic downsizing of our forces after the cold war with remarkable skill and spirit. But to make sure our military is ready for action, and to provide the pay and the quality of life the military and their families deserve, im asking the congress to add 25 billion in defense spending over the next six years. I have visited many bases at home and around the world since i became president. Tonight i repeat that request with renewed conviction. We ask a very great deal of our armed forces. Now that they are smaller in number, we ask more of them. They go out more often, to more different places, and stay longer. They are called to service in many, many ways, and we must give them and their families what the times demand and what they have earned. Just think about what our troops have done in the last year, showing america at its best. Helping to save hundreds of thousands of people in rwanda, moving with lightning speed to head off another threat to kuwait, giving freedom and democracy back to the people of haiti. We have proudly supported peace and prosperity and freedom from south africa to northern ireland, from central and eastern europe, from asia, to latin america, to the middle east. All these endeavors are good in those places. But they make our future more confident and more secure. Well, my fellow americans, thats my agenda for americas future. Expanding opportunity, not bureaucracy, enhancing security at home and abroad, empowering our people to make the most of their own lives. Its ambitious and achievable, but its not enough. We even need more than new ideas for changing the world or equipping americans to compete in the new economy. More than a government thats smaller, smarter, and wiser, more than all the changes we can make in government and in the private sector from the outside in. Our fortunes and our prosperity also depend upon our ability to answer some questions from within, from the values and voices that speak to our hearts as well as our heads, voices that tell us we have to do more to accept responsibility for ourselves and our families, for our communities and, yes, for our fellow citizens. We see our families and our communities all over this country coming apart, and we feel the Common Ground shifting from under us, from ptas, the town hall meeting, to the ballpark, its hard for a lot of overworked parents to find the time and space for those things that strengthen the bonds of trust and cooperation. Too many of our children dont even have parents and grandparents who can give them those experiences that they need to build their own character and their sense of identity. We all know that while we here in this chamber can make a difference on those things, and that the real differences will be made by our fellow citizens, where they work and where they live. And it will be made almost without regard to party. When i used to go to the softball park in little rock to watch my daughters league and people would come up to me, fathers and mothers, and talk to me, i can honestly say, i had no idea whether 90 of them were republicans or democrats. When i visited the Relief Centers after the floods in california, northern california, last week, a woman came up to me and did something that very few of you would do, she hugged me and said, mr. President , im a republican, but im glad youre here. Now why . We cant wait for disasters to act the way we used to act every day. Because as we move into this next century, everybody matters. We dont have a person to waste. And a lot of people are losing a lot of chances to do better. That means that we need a new covenant for everybody, for our corporate and business leaders, were going to work here to keep bringing the deficit down, to expand markets, to support their success in every possible way, but they have an obligation when theyre doing well, to keep jobs in our communities and give their workers a fair share of the prosperity they generate. For people in the Entertainment Industry in this country, we applaud your creativity and your worldwide suggestion and we support your freedom of expression, but do you have a responsibility to assess the impact of your work and to understand the damage that comes from the incessant repetitive, mindless violence and irresponsible conduct that permeates our media all the time. Weve got to ask our Community Leaders in all kinds of organizations to help us stop our most serious social problem, the epidemic of teen pregnancies and births where there is no marriage. I have sent to congress a plan to target schools all over this country with antipreparing pregnancy programs that work. But government can only do so much. Tonight i call on parents and leaders all across this country to join together in a National Campaign against teen pregnancy to make a difference. We can do this, and we must. And i would like to say a special word to our religious leaders. You know, im proud of the fact that the United States has more houses of worship per capita than any country in the world. These people who lead our houses of worship can ignite their congregations to carry their faith into action, can reach out to all of our children, to all of the people in distress, to those who have been savaged by the breakdown of all we hold dear. Because so much of what must be done must come from the inside out. And our religious leaders and their congregation can make all the difference. They have a role in the new covenant as well. There must be more responsibility for all of our citizens. You know, it takes a lot of people to help all the kids in trouble stay off the streets and in school. It takes a lot of people to build a Habitat Humanity houses that the speaker celebrates on his lapel pin, it takes a lot of people to provide the people power for all the civic organizations in this country that made our communities mean so much to most of us when we were kids. It takes every parent to teach their children the difference between right and wrong and to encourage them to learn and grow and to say no to the wrong things, but also to believe that they can be whatever they want to be. I know its hard when youre working harder for less, when youre under great stress to do these things. A lot of our people dont have the time or the emotional strength they think to do the work of citizenship. Most of us in politics havent helped very much. For years weve mostly treated citizens like they were consumers or spectators, sort of political couch potatoes who were supposed to watch the tv ads either promise them something for nothing or play on their fears and frustrations. And more and more of our citizens now get most of their information in very negative and aggressive ways that are hardly conducive to honest and open conversation. But the truth is, we have got to stop seeing each other as enemies just because we have different views. If you go back to the beginning of this country, the great strength of america has always been our ability to associate with people who were different from ourselves and to Work Together to find Common Ground. And in this day, everybody has a responsibility to do more of that. We simply cannot wait for a tornado, a fire, or a flood to behave like americans ought to behave in dealing with one another. I want to finish up here by pointing out to some folks that are up with the first lady that represents what im trying to talk about. Citizens. I have no idea what their Party Affiliation is or who they voted for in the last election. But they represent what we ought to be doing. Cindy perry teaches second graders to read in americorps in rural kentucky. She gains when she gives. Shes a mother of four. She says that her Service Inspired her to get her High School Equivalency last year. She was married when she was a teenager. Stand up, cindy. Thank you. She was married when she was a teenager, she had four children, but she had time to serve other people, to get her High School Equivalency, and shes going to use her americorps money to go back to college. Steven bishop is the police chief of kansas city. Hes been a National Leader. Stand up, steve. Hes been a National Leader in using more police and Community Policing and hes worked with americorps to do it, and the crime rate in kansas city has gone down as a result of what he did. Corporal gregory depestry went to haiti as part of his adopted country support to help secure democracy in his native land. And i might add we must be the only country in the world that could have gone to haiti and taken haitianamericans there who could speak the language and talk to the people, and he was one of them, and were proud of him. The next two folks ive had the honor of meeting and getting to know a little bit. The reverend john and the reverend diana cherry of the Ame Zion Church in temple hills, maryland. Id like to ask you to stand. I want to tell you about them. In the early 80s, they left Government Service and formed a church in a small living room in a small house. In the early 80s. Today that church has 17,000 members. It is one of the three or four biggest churches in the entire United States. It grows by 200 a month. They do it together. And the special focus of their ministry is keeping families together. They are two things they did made a big impression on me. I visited their church once, and i learned they were building a new sanctuary closer to the washington, d. C. , line, in a highercrime, higher drugrate area, because they thought it was part of their ministry to change the lives of the people who needed them. Second thing i want to say is, that once reverend cherry was at a meeting at the white house with some other religious leaders, and he left early to go back to his church to minister to 150 couples that he had brought back to his church from all over america to convince them to come back together to save their marriage and raise their kids. This is the kind of work that we citizens in america need more of it and we ought to be lifted up and supporting. The last person i want to introduce is jack lucas from hattiesburg, mississippi. Jack, would you stand up. 50 years ago in the sands of Iwo Jima Jack lucas taught and learned the lessons of citizenship. On february the 20th, 1945, he and three of his buddies encountered the enemy and two grenades at their feet. Jack lucas threw himself on both of them. In that moment, he saved the lives of his companions, and miraculously, in the next instance, a medic saved his life. He gained a foothold for freedom. And at the age of 17, just a year older than his grandson who is up there with him today, and his son, who is a west point graduate and a veteran, at 17, jack lucas became the youngest marine in history and the youngest soldier in this century to win the congressional medal of honor. All these years later, yesterday, heres what he said about that day. Didnt matter where you were from or who you were, you relied on one another. You did it for your country. We all gain when we give, and we reap what we sow. Thats at the heart of this new covenant, responsibility, opportunity, and citizenship. More than stale chapters in some remote civic book, theres still the virtue by which we can fulfill ourselves and reach our godgiven potential and be like them and also to fulfill the eternal promise of this country, the enduring dream from that first and most sacred covenant. I believe every person in this country Still Believes that we are created equal and given by our creator the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is a very, very great country. And our best days are still to come. Thank you, and god bless you all. Youre watching American History tv. All weekend. Every weekend. Cspan3. To join the conversation like us on facebook at cspan history. Each week, American History tvs reel america brings you Public Affairs films from the 20th