We meet here tonight at a time of great challenge and great opportunities for America. We meet at a time when we face great problems at home and abroad that will test the strength of our fiber as a nation. But we also meet at a time when that fiber has been tested, and it has proved strong. America is a great and good land, and we are a great and good land because we are a strong, free, creative people and because America is the single greatest force for peace anywhere in the world. Today, as always in our history, we can base our confidence in what the American people will achieve in the future on the record of what the American people have achieved in the past. Tonight, for the first time in 12 years, a President of the United States can report to the Congress on the state of a Union at peace with every nation of the world. Because of this, in the 22,000-word message on the state of the Union that I have just handed to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate, I have been able to deal primarily with the problems of peace with what we can do here at home in America for the American people--rather than with the problems of war. The measures I have outlined in this message set an agenda for truly significant progress for this Nation and the world in 1974. Before we chart where we are going, let us see how far we have come. It was 5 years ago on the steps of this Capitol that I took the oath of office as your President. In those 5 years, because of the initiatives undertaken by this Administration, the world has changed. America has changed. As a result of those changes, America is safer today, more prosperous today, with greater opportunity for more of its people than ever before in our history. Five years ago, America was at war in Southeast Asia. We were locked in confrontation with the Soviet Union. We were in hostile isolation from a quarter of the world's people who lived in Mainland China. Five years ago, our cities were burning and besieged. Five years ago, our college campuses were a battleground. Five years ago, crime was increasing at a rate that struck fear across the Nation. Five years ago, the spiraling rise in drug addiction was threatening human and social tragedy of massive proportion, and there was no program to deal with it. Five years ago--as young Americans had done for a generation before that-America's youth still lived under the shadow of the military draft. Five years ago, there was no national program to preserve our environment. Day by day, our air was getting dirtier, our water was getting more foul. And 5 years ago, American agriculture was practically a depressed industry with 100,000 farm families abandoning the farm every year. As we look at America today, we find ourselves challenged by new problems. But we also find a record of progress to confound the professional criers of doom and prophets of despair. We met the challenges we faced 5 years ago, and we will be equally confident of meeting those that we face today. Let us see for a moment how we have met them. After more than 10 years of military involvement, all of our troops have returned from Southeast Asia, and they have returned with honor. And we can be proud of the fact that our courageous prisoners of war, for whom a dinner was held in Washington tonight, that they came home with their heads high, on their feet and not on their knees. In our relations with the Soviet Union, we have turned away from a policy of confrontation to one of negotiation. For the first time since World War II, the world's two strongest powers are working together toward peace in the world. With the People's Republic of China after a generation of hostile isolation, we have begun a period of peaceful exchange and expanding trade. Peace has returned to our cities, to our campuses. The 17-year rise in crime has been stopped. We can confidently say today that we are finally beginning to win the war against crime. Right here in this Nation's Capital--which a few years ago was threatening to become the crime capital of the world--the rate in crime has been cut in half. A massive campaign against drug abuse has been organized. And the rate of new heroin addiction, the most vicious threat of all, is decreasing rather than increasing. For the first time in a generation, no young Americans are being drafted into the armed services of the United States. And for the first time ever, we have organized a massive national effort to protect the environment. Our air is getting cleaner, our water is getting purer, and our agriculture, which was depressed, is prospering. Farm income is up 70 percent, farm production is setting all-time records, and the billions of dollars the taxpayers were paying in subsidies has been cut to nearly zero. Overall, Americans are living more abundantly than ever before, today. More than 2 1/2 million new jobs were created in the past year alone. That is the biggest percentage increase in nearly 20 years. People are earning more. What they earn buys more, more than ever before in history. In the past 5 years, the average American's real spendable income--that is, what you really can buy with your income, even after allowing for taxes and inflation--has increased by 16 percent. Despite this record of achievement, as we turn to the year ahead we hear once again the familiar voice of the perennial prophets of gloom telling us now that because of the need to fight inflation, because of the energy shortage, America may be headed for a recession. Let me speak to that issue head on. There will be no recession in the United States of America. Primarily due to our energy crisis, our economy is passing through a difficult period. But I pledge to you tonight that the full powers of this Government will be used to keep America's economy producing and to protect the jobs of America's workers. We are engaged in a long and hard fight against inflation. There have been, and there will be in the future, ups and downs in that fight. But if this Congress cooperates in our efforts to hold down the cost of Government, we shall win our fight to hold down the cost of living for the American people. As we look back over our history, the years that stand out as the ones of signal achievement are those in which the Administration and the Congress, whether one party or the other, working together, had the wisdom and the foresight to select those particular initiatives for which the Nation was ready and the moment was right--and in which they seized the moment and acted. Looking at the year 1974 which lies before us, there are 10 key areas in which landmark accomplishments are possible this year in America. If we make these our national agenda, this is what we will achieve in 1974: We will break the back of the energy crisis; we will lay the foundation for our future capacity to meet America's energy needs from America's own resources. And we will take another giant stride toward lasting peace in the world--not only by continuing our policy of negotiation rather than confrontation where the great powers are concerned but also by helping toward the achievement of a just and lasting settlement in the Middle East. We will check the rise in prices without administering the harsh medicine of recession, and we will move the economy into a steady period of growth at a sustainable level. We will establish a new system that makes high-quality health care available to every American in a dignified manner and at a price he can afford. We will make our States and localities more responsive to the needs of their own citizens. We will make a crucial breakthrough toward better transportation in our towns and in our cities across America. We will reform our system of Federal aid to education, to provide it when it is needed, where it is needed, so that it will do the most for those who need it the most. We will make an historic beginning on the task of defining and protecting the right of personal privacy for every American. And we will start on a new road toward reform of a welfare system that bleeds the taxpayer, corrodes the community, and demeans those it is intended to assist. And together with the other nations of the world, we will establish the economic framework within which Americans will share more fully in an expanding worldwide trade and prosperity in the years ahead, with more open access to both markets and supplies. In all of the 186 State of the Union messages delivered from this place, in our history this is the first in which the one priority, the first priority, is energy. Let me begin by reporting a new development which I know will be welcome news to every American. As you know, we have committed ourselves to an active role in helping to achieve a just and durable peace in the Middle East, on the basis of full implementation of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. The first step in the process is the disengagement of Egyptian and Israeli forces which is now taking place. Because of this hopeful development, I can announce tonight that I have been assured, through my personal contacts with friendly leaders in the Middle Eastern area, that an urgent meeting will be called in the immediate future to discuss the lifting of the oil embargo. This is an encouraging sign. However, it should be clearly understood by our friends in the Middle East that the United States will not be coerced on this issue. Regardless of the outcome of this meeting, the cooperation of the American people in our energy conservation program has already gone a long way towards achieving a goal to which I am deeply dedicated. Let us do everything we can to avoid gasoline rationing in the United States of America. Last week, I sent to the Congress a comprehensive special message setting forth our energy situation, recommending the legislative measures which are necessary to a program for meeting our needs. If the embargo is lifted, this will ease the crisis, but it will not mean an end to the energy shortage in America. Voluntary conservation will continue to be necessary. And let me take this occasion to pay tribute once again to the splendid spirit of cooperation the American people have shown which has made possible our success in meeting this emergency up to this time. The new legislation I have requested will also remain necessary. Therefore, I urge again that the energy measures that I have proposed be made the first priority of this session of the Congress. These measures will require the oil companies and other energy producers to provide the public with the necessary information on their supplies. They will prevent the injustice of windfall profits for a few as a result of the sacrifices of the millions of Americans. And they will give us the organization, the incentives, the authorities needed to deal with the short-term emergency and to move toward meeting our long-term needs. Just as 1970 was the year in which we began a full-scale effort to protect the environment, 1974 must be the year in which we organize a full-scale effort to provide for our energy needs, not only in this decade but through the 21st century. As we move toward the celebration 2 years from now of the 200th anniversary of this Nation's independence, let us press vigorously on toward the goal I announced last November for Project Independence. Let this be our national goal: At the end of this decade, in the year 1980, the United States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need to provide our jobs, to heat our homes, and to keep our transportation moving. To indicate the size of the Government commitment, to spur energy research and development, we plan to spend $10 billion in Federal funds over the next 5 years. That is an enormous amount. But during the same 5 years, private enterprise will be investing as much as $200 billion--and in 10 years, $500 billion--to develop the new resources, the new technology, the new capacity America will require for its energy needs in the 1980's. That is just a measure of the magnitude of the project we are undertaking. But America performs best when called to its biggest tasks. It can truly be said that only in America could a task so tremendous be achieved so quickly, and achieved not by regimentation, but through the effort and ingenuity of a free people, working in a free system. Turning now to the rest of the agenda for 1974, the time is at hand this year to bring comprehensive, high quality health care within the reach of every American. I shall propose a sweeping new program that will assure comprehensive health insurance protection to millions of Americans who cannot now obtain it or afford it, with vastly improved protection against catastrophic illnesses. This will be a plan that maintains the high standards of quality in America's health care. And it will not require additional taxes. Now, I recognize that other plans have been put forward that would cost $80 billion or even $100 billion and that would put our whole health care system under the heavy hand of the Federal Government. This is the wrong approach. This has been tried abroad, and it has failed. It is not the way we do things here in America. This kind of plan would threaten the quality of care provided by our whole health care system. The right way is one that builds on the strengths of the present system and one that does not destroy those strengths, one based on partnership, not paternalism. Most important of all, let us keep this as the guiding principle of our health programs. Government has a great role to play, but we must always make sure that our doctors will be working for their patients and not for the Federal Government. Many of you will recall that in my State of the Union Address 3 years ago, I commented that "Most Americans today are simply fed up with government at all levels," and I recommended a sweeping set of proposals to revitalize State and local governments, to make them more responsive to the people they serve. I can report to you today that as a result of revenue sharing passed by the Congress, and other measures, we have made progress toward that goal. After 40 years of moving power from the States and the communities to Washington, D.C., we have begun moving power back from Washington to the States and communities and, most important, to the people of America. In this session of the Congress, I believe we are near the breakthrough point on efforts which I have suggested, proposals to let people themselves make their own decisions for their own communities and, in particular, on those to provide broad new flexibility in Federal aid for community development, for economic development, for education. And I look forward to working with the Congress, with members of both parties in resolving whatever remaining differences we have in this legislation so that we can make available nearly $5 1/2 billion to our States and localities to use not for what a Federal bureaucrat may want, but for what their own people in those communities want. The decision should be theirs. I think all of us recognize that the energy crisis has given new urgency to the need to improve public transportation, not only in our cities but in rural areas as well. The program I have proposed this year will give communities not only more money but also more freedom to balance their own transportation needs. It will mark the strongest Federal commitment ever to the improvement of mass transit as an essential element of the improvement of life in our towns and cities. One goal on which all Americans agree is that our children should have the very best education this great Nation can provide. In a special message last week, I recommended a number of important new measures that can make 1974 a year of truly significant advances for our schools and for the children they serve. If the Congress will act on these proposals, more flexible funding will enable each Federal dollar to meet better the particular need of each particular school district. Advance funding will give school authorities a chance to make each year's plans, knowing ahead of time what Federal funds they are going to receive. Special targeting will give special help to the truly disadvantaged among our people. College students faced with rising costs for their education will be able to draw on an expanded program of loans and grants. These advances are a needed investment in America's most precious resource, our next generation. And I urge the Congress to act on this legislation in 1974. One measure of a truly free society is the vigor with which it protects the liberties of its individual citizens. As technology has advanced in America, it has increasingly encroached on one of those liberties--what I term the right of personal privacy. Modern information systems, data banks, credit records, mailing list abuses, electronic snooping, the collection of personal data for one purpose that may be used for another--all these have left millions of Americans deeply concerned by the privacy they cherish. And the time has come, therefore, for a major initiative to define the nature and extent of the basic rights of privacy and to erect new safeguards to ensure that those rights are respected. I shall launch such an effort this year at the highest levels of the Administration, and I look forward again to working with this Congress in establishing a new set of standards that respect the legitimate needs of society, but that also recognize personal privacy as a cardinal principle of American liberty. Many of those in this Chamber tonight will recall that it was 3 years ago that I termed the Nation's welfare system "a monstrous, consuming outrage--an outrage against the community, against the taxpayer, and particularly against the children that it is supposed to help." That system is still an outrage. By improving its administration, we have been able to reduce some of the abuses. As a result, last year, for the first time in 18 years, there has been a halt in the growth of the welfare caseload. But as a system, our welfare program still needs reform as urgently today as it did when I first proposed in 1969 that we completely replace it with a different system. In these final 3 years of my Administration, I urge the Congress to join me in mounting a major new effort to replace the discredited present welfare system with one that works, one that is fair to those who need help or cannot help themselves, fair to the community, and fair to the taxpayer. And let us have as our goal that there will be no Government program which makes it more profitable to go on welfare than to go to work. I recognize that from the debates that have taken place within the Congress over the past 3 years on this program that we cannot expect enactment overnight of a new reform. But I do propose that the Congress and the Administration together make this the year in which we discuss, debate, and shape such a reform so that it can be enacted as quickly as possible. America's own prosperity in the years ahead depends on our sharing fully and equitably in an expanding world prosperity. Historic negotiations will take place this year that will enable us to ensure fair treatment in international markets for American workers, American farmers, American investors, and American consumers. It is vital that the authorities contained in the trade bill I submitted to the Congress be enacted so that the United States can negotiate flexibly and vigorously on behalf of American interests. These negotiations can usher in a new era of international trade that not only increases the prosperity of all nations but also strengthens the peace among all nations. In the past 5 years, we have made more progress toward a lasting structure of peace in the world than in any comparable time in the Nation's history. We could not have made that progress if we had not maintained the military strength of America. Thomas Jefferson once observed that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. By the same token, and for the same reason, in today's world the price of peace is a strong defense as far as the United States is concerned. In the past 5 years, we have steadily reduced the burden of national defense as a share of the budget, bringing it down from 44 percent in 1969 to 29 percent in the current year. We have cut our military manpower over the past 5 years by more than a third, from 3.5 million to 2.2 million. In the coming year, however, increased expenditures will be needed. They will be needed to assure the continued readiness of our military forces, to preserve present force levels in the face of rising costs, and to give us the military strength we must have if our security is to be maintained and if our initiatives for peace are to succeed. The question is not whether we can afford to maintain the necessary strength of our defense, the question is whether we can afford not to maintain it, and the answer to that question is no. We must never allow America to become the second strongest nation in the world. I do not say this with any sense of belligerence, because I recognize the fact that is recognized around the world. America's military strength has always been maintained to keep the peace, never to break it. It has always been used to defend freedom, never to destroy it. The world's peace, as well as our own, depends on our remaining as strong as we need to be as long as we need to be. In this year 1974, we will be negotiating with the Soviet Union to place further limits on strategic nuclear arms. Together with our allies, we will be negotiating with the nations of the Warsaw Pact on mutual and balanced reduction of forces in Europe. And we will continue our efforts to promote peaceful economic development in Latin America, in Africa, in Asia. We will press for full compliance with the peace accords that brought an end to American fighting in Indochina, including particularly a provision that promised the fullest possible accounting for those Americans who are missing in action. And having in mind the energy crisis to which I have referred to earlier, we will be working with the other nations of the world toward agreement on means by which oil supplies can be assured at reasonable prices on a stable basis in a fair way to the consuming and producing nations alike. All of these are steps toward a future in which the world's peace and prosperity, and ours as well as a result, are made more secure. Throughout the 5 years that I have served as your President, I have had one overriding aim, and that was to establish a new structure of peace in the world that can free future generations of the scourge of war. I can understand that others may have different priorities. This has been and this will remain my first priority and the chief legacy I hope to leave from the 8 years of my Presidency. This does not mean that we shall not have other priorities, because as we strengthen the peace, we must also continue each year a steady strengthening of our society here at home. Our conscience requires it, our interests require it, and we must insist upon it. As we create more jobs, as we build a better health care system, as we improve our education, as we develop new sources of energy, as we provide more abundantly for the elderly and the poor, as we strengthen the system of private enterprise that produces our prosperity as we do all of this and even more, we solidify those essential bonds that hold us together as a nation. Even more importantly, we advance what in the final analysis government in America is all about. What it is all about is more freedom, more security, a better life for each one of the 211 million people that live in this land. We cannot afford to neglect progress at home while pursuing peace abroad. But neither can Ave afford to neglect peace abroad while pursuing progress at home. With a stable peace, all is possible, but without peace, nothing is possible. In the written message that I have just delivered to the Speaker and to the President of the Senate, I commented that one of the continuing challenges facing us in the legislative process is that of the timing and pacing of our initiatives, selecting each year among many worthy projects those that are ripe for action at that time. What is true in terms of our domestic initiatives is true also in the world. This period we now are in, in the world--and I say this as one who has seen so much of the world, not only in these past 5 years but going back over many years--we are in a period which presents a juncture of historic forces unique in this century. They provide an opportunity we may never have again to create a structure of peace solid enough to last a lifetime and more, not just peace in our time but peace in our children's time as well. It is on the way we respond to this opportunity, more than anything else, that history will judge whether we in America have met our responsibility. And I am confident we will meet that great historic responsibility which is ours today. It was 27 years ago that John F. Kennedy and I sat in this Chamber, as freshmen Congressmen, hearing our first State of the Union address delivered by Harry Truman. I know from my talks with him, as members of the Labor Committee on which we both served, that neither of us then even dreamed that either one or both might eventually be standing in this place that I now stand in now and that he once stood in, before me. It may well be that one of the freshmen Members of the 93d Congress, one of you out there, will deliver his own State of the Union message 27 years from now, in the year 2001. Well, whichever one it is, I want you to be able to look back with pride and to say that your first years here were great years and recall that you were here in this 93d Congress when America ended its longest war and began its longest peace. [At this point, the President paused to acknowledge applause from the audience. He then resumed speaking.] Mr. Speaker, and Mr. President, and my distinguished colleagues and our guests: I would like to add a personal word with regard to an issue that has been of great concern to all Americans over the past year. I refer, of course, to the investigations of the so-called Watergate affair. As you know, I have provided to the Special Prosecutor voluntarily a great deal of material. I believe that I have provided all the material that he needs to conclude his investigations and to proceed to prosecute the guilty and to clear the innocent. I believe the time has come to bring that investigation and the other investigations of this matter to an end. One year of Watergate is enough. And the time has come, my colleagues, for not only the Executive, the President, but the Members of Congress, for all of us to join together in devoting our full energies to these great issues that I have discussed tonight which involve the welfare of all of the American people in so many different ways, as well as the peace of the world. I recognize that the House Judiciary Committee has a special responsibility in this area, and I want to indicate on this occasion that I will cooperate with the Judiciary Committee in its investigation. I will cooperate so that it can conclude its investigation, make its decision, and I will cooperate in any way that I consider consistent with my responsibilities to the Office of the Presidency of the United States. There is only one limitation. I will follow the precedent that has been followed by and defended by every President from George Washington to Lyndon B. Johnson of never doing anything that weakens the Office of the President of the United States or impairs the ability of the Presidents of the future to make the great decisions that are so essential to this Nation and the world. Another point I should like to make very briefly: Like every Member of the House and Senate assembled here tonight, I was elected to the office that I hold. And like every Member of the House and Senate, when I was elected to that office, I knew that I was elected for the purpose of doing a job and doing it as well as I possibly can. And I want you to know that I have no intention whatever of ever walking away from the job that the people elected me to do for the people of the United States. Now, needless to say, it would be understatement if I were not to admit that the year 1973 was not a very easy year for me personally or for my family. And as I have already indicated, the year 1974 presents very great and serious problems, as very great and serious opportunities are also presented. But my colleagues, this I believe: With the help of God, who has blessed this land so richly, with the cooperation of the Congress, and with the support of the American people, we can and we will make the year 1974 a year of unprecedented progress toward our goal of building a structure of lasting peace in the world and a new prosperity without war in the United States of America.
We meet here tonight at a time of great challenge and great opportunities for America. We meet at a time when we face great problems at home and abroad that will test the strength of our fiber as a nation. But we also meet at a time when that fiber has been tested, and it has proved strong. America is a great and good land, and we are a great and good land because we are a strong, free, creative people and because America is the single greatest force for peace anywhere in the world. Today, as always in our history, we can base our confidence in what the American people will achieve in the future on the record of what the American people have achieved in the past. Tonight, for the first time in 12 years, a President of the United States can report to the Congress on the state of a Union at peace with every nation of the world. Because of this, in the 22,000-word message on the state of the Union that I have just handed to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate, I have been able to deal primarily with the problems of peace with what we can do here at home in America for the American people--rather than with the problems of war. The measures I have outlined in this message set an agenda for truly significant progress for this Nation and the world in 1974. Before we chart where we are going, let us see how far we have come. It was 5 years ago on the steps of this Capitol that I took the oath of office as your President. In those 5 years, because of the initiatives undertaken by this Administration, the world has changed. America has changed. As a result of those changes, America is safer today, more prosperous today, with greater opportunity for more of its people than ever before in our history. Five years ago, America was at war in Southeast Asia. We were locked in confrontation with the Soviet Union. We were in hostile isolation from a quarter of the world's people who lived in Mainland China. Five years ago, our cities were burning and besieged. Five years ago, our college campuses were a battleground. Five years ago, crime was increasing at a rate that struck fear across the Nation. Five years ago, the spiraling rise in drug addiction was threatening human and social tragedy of massive proportion, and there was no program to deal with it. Five years ago--as young Americans had done for a generation before that-America's youth still lived under the shadow of the military draft. Five years ago, there was no national program to preserve our environment. Day by day, our air was getting dirtier, our water was getting more foul. And 5 years ago, American agriculture was practically a depressed industry with 100,000 farm families abandoning the farm every year. As we look at America today, we find ourselves challenged by new problems. But we also find a record of progress to confound the professional criers of doom and prophets of despair. We met the challenges we faced 5 years ago, and we will be equally confident of meeting those that we face today. Let us see for a moment how we have met them. After more than 10 years of military involvement, all of our troops have returned from Southeast Asia, and they have returned with honor. And we can be proud of the fact that our courageous prisoners of war, for whom a dinner was held in Washington tonight, that they came home with their heads high, on their feet and not on their knees. In our relations with the Soviet Union, we have turned away from a policy of confrontation to one of negotiation. For the first time since World War II, the world's two strongest powers are working together toward peace in the world. With the People's Republic of China after a generation of hostile isolation, we have begun a period of peaceful exchange and expanding trade. Peace has returned to our cities, to our campuses. The 17-year rise in crime has been stopped. We can confidently say today that we are finally beginning to win the war against crime. Right here in this Nation's Capital--which a few years ago was threatening to become the crime capital of the world--the rate in crime has been cut in half. A massive campaign against drug abuse has been organized. And the rate of new heroin addiction, the most vicious threat of all, is decreasing rather than increasing. For the first time in a generation, no young Americans are being drafted into the armed services of the United States. And for the first time ever, we have organized a massive national effort to protect the environment. Our air is getting cleaner, our water is getting purer, and our agriculture, which was depressed, is prospering. Farm income is up 70 percent, farm production is setting all-time records, and the billions of dollars the taxpayers were paying in subsidies has been cut to nearly zero. Overall, Americans are living more abundantly than ever before, today. More than 2 1/2 million new jobs were created in the past year alone. That is the biggest percentage increase in nearly 20 years. People are earning more. What they earn buys more, more than ever before in history. In the past 5 years, the average American's real spendable income--that is, what you really can buy with your income, even after allowing for taxes and inflation--has increased by 16 percent. Despite this record of achievement, as we turn to the year ahead we hear once again the familiar voice of the perennial prophets of gloom telling us now that because of the need to fight inflation, because of the energy shortage, America may be headed for a recession. Let me speak to that issue head on. There will be no recession in the United States of America. Primarily due to our energy crisis, our economy is passing through a difficult period. But I pledge to you tonight that the full powers of this Government will be used to keep America's economy producing and to protect the jobs of America's workers. We are engaged in a long and hard fight against inflation. There have been, and there will be in the future, ups and downs in that fight. But if this Congress cooperates in our efforts to hold down the cost of Government, we shall win our fight to hold down the cost of living for the American people. As we look back over our history, the years that stand out as the ones of signal achievement are those in which the Administration and the Congress, whether one party or the other, working together, had the wisdom and the foresight to select those particular initiatives for which the Nation was ready and the moment was right--and in which they seized the moment and acted. Looking at the year 1974 which lies before us, there are 10 key areas in which landmark accomplishments are possible this year in America. If we make these our national agenda, this is what we will achieve in 1974: We will break the back of the energy crisis; we will lay the foundation for our future capacity to meet America's energy needs from America's own resources. And we will take another giant stride toward lasting peace in the world--not only by continuing our policy of negotiation rather than confrontation where the great powers are concerned but also by helping toward the achievement of a just and lasting settlement in the Middle East. We will check the rise in prices without administering the harsh medicine of recession, and we will move the economy into a steady period of growth at a sustainable level. We will establish a new system that makes high-quality health care available to every American in a dignified manner and at a price he can afford. We will make our States and localities more responsive to the needs of their own citizens. We will make a crucial breakthrough toward better transportation in our towns and in our cities across America. We will reform our system of Federal aid to education, to provide it when it is needed, where it is needed, so that it will do the most for those who need it the most. We will make an historic beginning on the task of defining and protecting the right of personal privacy for every American. And we will start on a new road toward reform of a welfare system that bleeds the taxpayer, corrodes the community, and demeans those it is intended to assist. And together with the other nations of the world, we will establish the economic framework within which Americans will share more fully in an expanding worldwide trade and prosperity in the years ahead, with more open access to both markets and supplies. In all of the 186 State of the Union messages delivered from this place, in our history this is the first in which the one priority, the first priority, is energy. Let me begin by reporting a new development which I know will be welcome news to every American. As you know, we have committed ourselves to an active role in helping to achieve a just and durable peace in the Middle East, on the basis of full implementation of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. The first step in the process is the disengagement of Egyptian and Israeli forces which is now taking place. Because of this hopeful development, I can announce tonight that I have been assured, through my personal contacts with friendly leaders in the Middle Eastern area, that an urgent meeting will be called in the immediate future to discuss the lifting of the oil embargo. This is an encouraging sign. However, it should be clearly understood by our friends in the Middle East that the United States will not be coerced on this issue. Regardless of the outcome of this meeting, the cooperation of the American people in our energy conservation program has already gone a long way towards achieving a goal to which I am deeply dedicated. Let us do everything we can to avoid gasoline rationing in the United States of America. Last week, I sent to the Congress a comprehensive special message setting forth our energy situation, recommending the legislative measures which are necessary to a program for meeting our needs. If the embargo is lifted, this will ease the crisis, but it will not mean an end to the energy shortage in America. Voluntary conservation will continue to be necessary. And let me take this occasion to pay tribute once again to the splendid spirit of cooperation the American people have shown which has made possible our success in meeting this emergency up to this time. The new legislation I have requested will also remain necessary. Therefore, I urge again that the energy measures that I have proposed be made the first priority of this session of the Congress. These measures will require the oil companies and other energy producers to provide the public with the necessary information on their supplies. They will prevent the injustice of windfall profits for a few as a result of the sacrifices of the millions of Americans. And they will give us the organization, the incentives, the authorities needed to deal with the short-term emergency and to move toward meeting our long-term needs. Just as 1970 was the year in which we began a full-scale effort to protect the environment, 1974 must be the year in which we organize a full-scale effort to provide for our energy needs, not only in this decade but through the 21st century. As we move toward the celebration 2 years from now of the 200th anniversary of this Nation's independence, let us press vigorously on toward the goal I announced last November for Project Independence. Let this be our national goal: At the end of this decade, in the year 1980, the United States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need to provide our jobs, to heat our homes, and to keep our transportation moving. To indicate the size of the Government commitment, to spur energy research and development, we plan to spend $10 billion in Federal funds over the next 5 years. That is an enormous amount. But during the same 5 years, private enterprise will be investing as much as $200 billion--and in 10 years, $500 billion--to develop the new resources, the new technology, the new capacity America will require for its energy needs in the 1980's. That is just a measure of the magnitude of the project we are undertaking. But America performs best when called to its biggest tasks. It can truly be said that only in America could a task so tremendous be achieved so quickly, and achieved not by regimentation, but through the effort and ingenuity of a free people, working in a free system. Turning now to the rest of the agenda for 1974, the time is at hand this year to bring comprehensive, high quality health care within the reach of every American. I shall propose a sweeping new program that will assure comprehensive health insurance protection to millions of Americans who cannot now obtain it or afford it, with vastly improved protection against catastrophic illnesses. This will be a plan that maintains the high standards of quality in America's health care. And it will not require additional taxes. Now, I recognize that other plans have been put forward that would cost $80 billion or even $100 billion and that would put our whole health care system under the heavy hand of the Federal Government. This is the wrong approach. This has been tried abroad, and it has failed. It is not the way we do things here in America. This kind of plan would threaten the quality of care provided by our whole health care system. The right way is one that builds on the strengths of the present system and one that does not destroy those strengths, one based on partnership, not paternalism. Most important of all, let us keep this as the guiding principle of our health programs. Government has a great role to play, but we must always make sure that our doctors will be working for their patients and not for the Federal Government. Many of you will recall that in my State of the Union Address 3 years ago, I commented that "Most Americans today are simply fed up with government at all levels," and I recommended a sweeping set of proposals to revitalize State and local governments, to make them more responsive to the people they serve. I can report to you today that as a result of revenue sharing passed by the Congress, and other measures, we have made progress toward that goal. After 40 years of moving power from the States and the communities to Washington, D.C., we have begun moving power back from Washington to the States and communities and, most important, to the people of America. In this session of the Congress, I believe we are near the breakthrough point on efforts which I have suggested, proposals to let people themselves make their own decisions for their own communities and, in particular, on those to provide broad new flexibility in Federal aid for community development, for economic development, for education. And I look forward to working with the Congress, with members of both parties in resolving whatever remaining differences we have in this legislation so that we can make available nearly $5 1/2 billion to our States and localities to use not for what a Federal bureaucrat may want, but for what their own people in those communities want. The decision should be theirs. I think all of us recognize that the energy crisis has given new urgency to the need to improve public transportation, not only in our cities but in rural areas as well. The program I have proposed this year will give communities not only more money but also more freedom to balance their own transportation needs. It will mark the strongest Federal commitment ever to the improvement of mass transit as an essential element of the improvement of life in our towns and cities. One goal on which all Americans agree is that our children should have the very best education this great Nation can provide. In a special message last week, I recommended a number of important new measures that can make 1974 a year of truly significant advances for our schools and for the children they serve. If the Congress will act on these proposals, more flexible funding will enable each Federal dollar to meet better the particular need of each particular school district. Advance funding will give school authorities a chance to make each year's plans, knowing ahead of time what Federal funds they are going to receive. Special targeting will give special help to the truly disadvantaged among our people. College students faced with rising costs for their education will be able to draw on an expanded program of loans and grants. These advances are a needed investment in America's most precious resource, our next generation. And I urge the Congress to act on this legislation in 1974. One measure of a truly free society is the vigor with which it protects the liberties of its individual citizens. As technology has advanced in America, it has increasingly encroached on one of those liberties--what I term the right of personal privacy. Modern information systems, data banks, credit records, mailing list abuses, electronic snooping, the collection of personal data for one purpose that may be used for another--all these have left millions of Americans deeply concerned by the privacy they cherish. And the time has come, therefore, for a major initiative to define the nature and extent of the basic rights of privacy and to erect new safeguards to ensure that those rights are respected. I shall launch such an effort this year at the highest levels of the Administration, and I look forward again to working with this Congress in establishing a new set of standards that respect the legitimate needs of society, but that also recognize personal privacy as a cardinal principle of American liberty. Many of those in this Chamber tonight will recall that it was 3 years ago that I termed the Nation's welfare system "a monstrous, consuming outrage--an outrage against the community, against the taxpayer, and particularly against the children that it is supposed to help." That system is still an outrage. By improving its administration, we have been able to reduce some of the abuses. As a result, last year, for the first time in 18 years, there has been a halt in the growth of the welfare caseload. But as a system, our welfare program still needs reform as urgently today as it did when I first proposed in 1969 that we completely replace it with a different system. In these final 3 years of my Administration, I urge the Congress to join me in mounting a major new effort to replace the discredited present welfare system with one that works, one that is fair to those who need help or cannot help themselves, fair to the community, and fair to the taxpayer. And let us have as our goal that there will be no Government program which makes it more profitable to go on welfare than to go to work. I recognize that from the debates that have taken place within the Congress over the past 3 years on this program that we cannot expect enactment overnight of a new reform. But I do propose that the Congress and the Administration together make this the year in which we discuss, debate, and shape such a reform so that it can be enacted as quickly as possible. America's own prosperity in the years ahead depends on our sharing fully and equitably in an expanding world prosperity. Historic negotiations will take place this year that will enable us to ensure fair treatment in international markets for American workers, American farmers, American investors, and American consumers. It is vital that the authorities contained in the trade bill I submitted to the Congress be enacted so that the United States can negotiate flexibly and vigorously on behalf of American interests. These negotiations can usher in a new era of international trade that not only increases the prosperity of all nations but also strengthens the peace among all nations. In the past 5 years, we have made more progress toward a lasting structure of peace in the world than in any comparable time in the Nation's history. We could not have made that progress if we had not maintained the military strength of America. Thomas Jefferson once observed that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. By the same token, and for the same reason, in today's world the price of peace is a strong defense as far as the United States is concerned. In the past 5 years, we have steadily reduced the burden of national defense as a share of the budget, bringing it down from 44 percent in 1969 to 29 percent in the current year. We have cut our military manpower over the past 5 years by more than a third, from 3.5 million to 2.2 million. In the coming year, however, increased expenditures will be needed. They will be needed to assure the continued readiness of our military forces, to preserve present force levels in the face of rising costs, and to give us the military strength we must have if our security is to be maintained and if our initiatives for peace are to succeed. The question is not whether we can afford to maintain the necessary strength of our defense, the question is whether we can afford not to maintain it, and the answer to that question is no. We must never allow America to become the second strongest nation in the world. I do not say this with any sense of belligerence, because I recognize the fact that is recognized around the world. America's military strength has always been maintained to keep the peace, never to break it. It has always been used to defend freedom, never to destroy it. The world's peace, as well as our own, depends on our remaining as strong as we need to be as long as we need to be. In this year 1974, we will be negotiating with the Soviet Union to place further limits on strategic nuclear arms. Together with our allies, we will be negotiating with the nations of the Warsaw Pact on mutual and balanced reduction of forces in Europe. And we will continue our efforts to promote peaceful economic development in Latin America, in Africa, in Asia. We will press for full compliance with the peace accords that brought an end to American fighting in Indochina, including particularly a provision that promised the fullest possible accounting for those Americans who are missing in action. And having in mind the energy crisis to which I have referred to earlier, we will be working with the other nations of the world toward agreement on means by which oil supplies can be assured at reasonable prices on a stable basis in a fair way to the consuming and producing nations alike. All of these are steps toward a future in which the world's peace and prosperity, and ours as well as a result, are made more secure. Throughout the 5 years that I have served as your President, I have had one overriding aim, and that was to establish a new structure of peace in the world that can free future generations of the scourge of war. I can understand that others may have different priorities. This has been and this will remain my first priority and the chief legacy I hope to leave from the 8 years of my Presidency. This does not mean that we shall not have other priorities, because as we strengthen the peace, we must also continue each year a steady strengthening of our society here at home. Our conscience requires it, our interests require it, and we must insist upon it. As we create more jobs, as we build a better health care system, as we improve our education, as we develop new sources of energy, as we provide more abundantly for the elderly and the poor, as we strengthen the system of private enterprise that produces our prosperity as we do all of this and even more, we solidify those essential bonds that hold us together as a nation. Even more importantly, we advance what in the final analysis government in America is all about. What it is all about is more freedom, more security, a better life for each one of the 211 million people that live in this land. We cannot afford to neglect progress at home while pursuing peace abroad. But neither can Ave afford to neglect peace abroad while pursuing progress at home. With a stable peace, all is possible, but without peace, nothing is possible. In the written message that I have just delivered to the Speaker and to the President of the Senate, I commented that one of the continuing challenges facing us in the legislative process is that of the timing and pacing of our initiatives, selecting each year among many worthy projects those that are ripe for action at that time. What is true in terms of our domestic initiatives is true also in the world. This period we now are in, in the world--and I say this as one who has seen so much of the world, not only in these past 5 years but going back over many years--we are in a period which presents a juncture of historic forces unique in this century. They provide an opportunity we may never have again to create a structure of peace solid enough to last a lifetime and more, not just peace in our time but peace in our children's time as well. It is on the way we respond to this opportunity, more than anything else, that history will judge whether we in America have met our responsibility. And I am confident we will meet that great historic responsibility which is ours today. It was 27 years ago that John F. Kennedy and I sat in this Chamber, as freshmen Congressmen, hearing our first State of the Union address delivered by Harry Truman. I know from my talks with him, as members of the Labor Committee on which we both served, that neither of us then even dreamed that either one or both might eventually be standing in this place that I now stand in now and that he once stood in, before me. It may well be that one of the freshmen Members of the 93d Congress, one of you out there, will deliver his own State of the Union message 27 years from now, in the year 2001. Well, whichever one it is, I want you to be able to look back with pride and to say that your first years here were great years and recall that you were here in this 93d Congress when America ended its longest war and began its longest peace. [At this point, the President paused to acknowledge applause from the audience. He then resumed speaking.] Mr. Speaker, and Mr. President, and my distinguished colleagues and our guests: I would like to add a personal word with regard to an issue that has been of great concern to all Americans over the past year. I refer, of course, to the investigations of the so-called Watergate affair. As you know, I have provided to the Special Prosecutor voluntarily a great deal of material. I believe that I have provided all the material that he needs to conclude his investigations and to proceed to prosecute the guilty and to clear the innocent. I believe the time has come to bring that investigation and the other investigations of this matter to an end. One year of Watergate is enough. And the time has come, my colleagues, for not only the Executive, the President, but the Members of Congress, for all of us to join together in devoting our full energies to these great issues that I have discussed tonight which involve the welfare of all of the American people in so many different ways, as well as the peace of the world. I recognize that the House Judiciary Committee has a special responsibility in this area, and I want to indicate on this occasion that I will cooperate with the Judiciary Committee in its investigation. I will cooperate so that it can conclude its investigation, make its decision, and I will cooperate in any way that I consider consistent with my responsibilities to the Office of the Presidency of the United States. There is only one limitation. I will follow the precedent that has been followed by and defended by every President from George Washington to Lyndon B. Johnson of never doing anything that weakens the Office of the President of the United States or impairs the ability of the Presidents of the future to make the great decisions that are so essential to this Nation and the world. Another point I should like to make very briefly: Like every Member of the House and Senate assembled here tonight, I was elected to the office that I hold. And like every Member of the House and Senate, when I was elected to that office, I knew that I was elected for the purpose of doing a job and doing it as well as I possibly can. And I want you to know that I have no intention whatever of ever walking away from the job that the people elected me to do for the people of the United States. Now, needless to say, it would be understatement if I were not to admit that the year 1973 was not a very easy year for me personally or for my family. And as I have already indicated, the year 1974 presents very great and serious problems, as very great and serious opportunities are also presented. But my colleagues, this I believe: With the help of God, who has blessed this land so richly, with the cooperation of the Congress, and with the support of the American people, we can and we will make the year 1974 a year of unprecedented progress toward our goal of building a structure of lasting peace in the world and a new prosperity without war in the United States of America.
we meet here tonight at a time of great challenge and great opportunities for america we meet at a time when we face great problems at home and abroad that will test the strength of our fiber as a nation but we also meet at a time when that fiber has been tested and it has proved strong america is a great and good land and we are a great and good land because we are a strong free creative people and because america is the single greatest force for peace anywhere in the world today as always in our history we can base our confidence in what the american people will achieve in the future on the record of what the american people have achieved in the past tonight for the first time in 12 years a president of the united states can report to the congress on the state of a union at peace with every nation of the world because of this in the message on the state of the union that i have just handed to the speaker of the house and the president of the senate i have been able to deal primarily with the problems of peace with what we can do here at home in america for the american people rather than with the problems of war the measures i have outlined in this message set an agenda for truly significant progress for this nation and the world in 1974 before we chart where we are going let us see how far we have come it was 5 years ago on the steps of this capitol that i took the oath of office as your president in those 5 years because of the initiatives undertaken by this administration the world has changed america has changed as a result of those changes america is safer today more prosperous today with greater opportunity for more of its people than ever before in our history five years ago america was at war in southeast asia we were locked in confrontation with the soviet union we were in hostile isolation from a quarter of the world people who lived in mainland china five years ago our cities were burning and besieged five years ago our college campuses were a battleground five years ago crime was increasing at a rate that struck fear across the nation five years ago the spiraling rise in drug addiction was threatening human and social tragedy of massive proportion and there was no program to deal with it five years ago as young americans had done for a generation before youth still lived under the shadow of the military draft five years ago there was no national program to preserve our environment day by day our air was getting dirtier our water was getting more foul and 5 years ago american agriculture was practically a depressed industry with farm families abandoning the farm every year as we look at america today we find ourselves challenged by new problems but we also find a record of progress to confound the professional criers of doom and prophets of despair we met the challenges we faced 5 years ago and we will be equally confident of meeting those that we face today let us see for a moment how we have met them after more than 10 years of military involvement all of our troops have returned from southeast asia and they have returned with honor and we can be proud of the fact that our courageous prisoners of war for whom a dinner was held in washington tonight that they came home with their heads high on their feet and not on their knees in our relations with the soviet union we have turned away from a policy of confrontation to one of negotiation for the first time since world war ii the world two strongest powers are working together toward peace in the world with the people republic of china after a generation of hostile isolation we have begun a period of peaceful exchange and expanding trade peace has returned to our cities to our campuses the rise in crime has been stopped we can confidently say today that we are finally beginning to win the war against crime right here in this nation capital which a few years ago was threatening to become the crime capital of the world the rate in crime has been cut in half a massive campaign against drug abuse has been organized and the rate of new heroin addiction the most vicious threat of all is decreasing rather than increasing for the first time in a generation no young americans are being drafted into the armed services of the united states and for the first time ever we have organized a massive national effort to protect the environment our air is getting cleaner our water is getting purer and our agriculture which was depressed is prospering farm income is up 70 percent farm production is setting records and the billions of dollars the taxpayers were paying in subsidies has been cut to nearly zero overall americans are living more abundantly than ever before today more than 2 million new jobs were created in the past year alone that is the biggest percentage increase in nearly 20 years people are earning more what they earn buys more more than ever before in history in the past 5 years the average american real spendable income that is what you really can buy with your income even after allowing for taxes and inflation has increased by 16 percent despite this record of achievement as we turn to the year ahead we hear once again the familiar voice of the perennial prophets of gloom telling us now that because of the need to fight inflation because of the energy shortage america may be headed for a recession let me speak to that issue head on there will be no recession in the united states of america primarily due to our energy crisis our economy is passing through a difficult period but i pledge to you tonight that the full powers of this government will be used to keep america economy producing and to protect the jobs of america workers we are engaged in a long and hard fight against inflation there have been and there will be in the future ups and downs in that fight but if this congress cooperates in our efforts to hold down the cost of government we shall win our fight to hold down the cost of living for the american people as we look back over our history the years that stand out as the ones of signal achievement are those in which the administration and the congress whether one party or the other working together had the wisdom and the foresight to select those particular initiatives for which the nation was ready and the moment was right and in which they seized the moment and acted looking at the year 1974 which lies before us there are 10 key areas in which landmark accomplishments are possible this year in america if we make these our national agenda this is what we will achieve in 1974 we will break the back of the energy crisis we will lay the foundation for our future capacity to meet america energy needs from america own resources and we will take another giant stride toward lasting peace in the world not only by continuing our policy of negotiation rather than confrontation where the great powers are concerned but also by helping toward the achievement of a just and lasting settlement in the middle east we will check the rise in prices without administering the harsh medicine of recession and we will move the economy into a steady period of growth at a sustainable level we will establish a new system that makes health care available to every american in a dignified manner and at a price he can afford we will make our states and localities more responsive to the needs of their own citizens we will make a crucial breakthrough toward better transportation in our towns and in our cities across america we will reform our system of federal aid to education to provide it when it is needed where it is needed so that it will do the most for those who need it the most we will make an historic beginning on the task of defining and protecting the right of personal privacy for every american and we will start on a new road toward reform of a welfare system that bleeds the taxpayer corrodes the community and demeans those it is intended to assist and together with the other nations of the world we will establish the economic framework within which americans will share more fully in an expanding worldwide trade and prosperity in the years ahead with more open access to both markets and supplies in all of the 186 state of the union messages delivered from this place in our history this is the first in which the one priority the first priority is energy let me begin by reporting a new development which i know will be welcome news to every american as you know we have committed ourselves to an active role in helping to achieve a just and durable peace in the middle east on the basis of full implementation of security council resolutions 242 and 338 the first step in the process is the disengagement of egyptian and israeli forces which is now taking place because of this hopeful development i can announce tonight that i have been assured through my personal contacts with friendly leaders in the middle eastern area that an urgent meeting will be called in the immediate future to discuss the lifting of the oil embargo this is an encouraging sign however it should be clearly understood by our friends in the middle east that the united states will not be coerced on this issue regardless of the outcome of this meeting the cooperation of the american people in our energy conservation program has already gone a long way towards achieving a goal to which i am deeply dedicated let us do everything we can to avoid gasoline rationing in the united states of america last week i sent to the congress a comprehensive special message setting forth our energy situation recommending the legislative measures which are necessary to a program for meeting our needs if the embargo is lifted this will ease the crisis but it will not mean an end to the energy shortage in america voluntary conservation will continue to be necessary and let me take this occasion to pay tribute once again to the splendid spirit of cooperation the american people have shown which has made possible our success in meeting this emergency up to this time the new legislation i have requested will also remain necessary therefore i urge again that the energy measures that i have proposed be made the first priority of this session of the congress these measures will require the oil companies and other energy producers to provide the public with the necessary information on their supplies they will prevent the injustice of windfall profits for a few as a result of the sacrifices of the millions of americans and they will give us the organization the incentives the authorities needed to deal with the emergency and to move toward meeting our needs just as 1970 was the year in which we began a effort to protect the environment 1974 must be the year in which we organize a effort to provide for our energy needs not only in this decade but through the 21st century as we move toward the celebration 2 years from now of the 200th anniversary of this nation independence let us press vigorously on toward the goal i announced last november for project independence let this be our national goal at the end of this decade in the year 1980 the united states will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need to provide our jobs to heat our homes and to keep our transportation moving to indicate the size of the government commitment to spur energy research and development we plan to spend 10 billion in federal funds over the next 5 years that is an enormous amount but during the same 5 years private enterprise will be investing as much as 200 billion and in 10 years 500 billion to develop the new resources the new technology the new capacity america will require for its energy needs in the 1980 that is just a measure of the magnitude of the project we are undertaking but america performs best when called to its biggest tasks it can truly be said that only in america could a task so tremendous be achieved so quickly and achieved not by regimentation but through the effort and ingenuity of a free people working in a free system turning now to the rest of the agenda for 1974 the time is at hand this year to bring comprehensive high quality health care within the reach of every american i shall propose a sweeping new program that will assure comprehensive health insurance protection to millions of americans who can not now obtain it or afford it with vastly improved protection against catastrophic illnesses this will be a plan that maintains the high standards of quality in america health care and it will not require additional taxes now i recognize that other plans have been put forward that would cost 80 billion or even 100 billion and that would put our whole health care system under the heavy hand of the federal government this is the wrong approach this has been tried abroad and it has failed it is not the way we do things here in america this kind of plan would threaten the quality of care provided by our whole health care system the right way is one that builds on the strengths of the present system and one that does not destroy those strengths one based on partnership not paternalism most important of all let us keep this as the guiding principle of our health programs government has a great role to play but we must always make sure that our doctors will be working for their patients and not for the federal government many of you will recall that in my state of the union address 3 years ago i commented that most americans today are simply fed up with government at all levels and i recommended a sweeping set of proposals to revitalize state and local governments to make them more responsive to the people they serve i can report to you today that as a result of revenue sharing passed by the congress and other measures we have made progress toward that goal after 40 years of moving power from the states and the communities to washington we have begun moving power back from washington to the states and communities and most important to the people of america in this session of the congress i believe we are near the breakthrough point on efforts which i have suggested proposals to let people themselves make their own decisions for their own communities and in particular on those to provide broad new flexibility in federal aid for community development for economic development for education and i look forward to working with the congress with members of both parties in resolving whatever remaining differences we have in this legislation so that we can make available nearly 5 billion to our states and localities to use not for what a federal bureaucrat may want but for what their own people in those communities want the decision should be theirs i think all of us recognize that the energy crisis has given new urgency to the need to improve public transportation not only in our cities but in rural areas as well the program i have proposed this year will give communities not only more money but also more freedom to balance their own transportation needs it will mark the strongest federal commitment ever to the improvement of mass transit as an essential element of the improvement of life in our towns and cities one goal on which all americans agree is that our children should have the very best education this great nation can provide in a special message last week i recommended a number of important new measures that can make 1974 a year of truly significant advances for our schools and for the children they serve if the congress will act on these proposals more flexible funding will enable each federal dollar to meet better the particular need of each particular school district advance funding will give school authorities a chance to make each year plans knowing ahead of time what federal funds they are going to receive special targeting will give special help to the truly disadvantaged among our people college students faced with rising costs for their education will be able to draw on an expanded program of loans and grants these advances are a needed investment in america most precious resource our next generation and i urge the congress to act on this legislation in 1974 one measure of a truly free society is the vigor with which it protects the liberties of its individual citizens as technology has advanced in america it has increasingly encroached on one of those liberties what i term the right of personal privacy modern information systems data banks credit records mailing list abuses electronic snooping the collection of personal data for one purpose that may be used for another all these have left millions of americans deeply concerned by the privacy they cherish and the time has come therefore for a major initiative to define the nature and extent of the basic rights of privacy and to erect new safeguards to ensure that those rights are respected i shall launch such an effort this year at the highest levels of the administration and i look forward again to working with this congress in establishing a new set of standards that respect the legitimate needs of society but that also recognize personal privacy as a cardinal principle of american liberty many of those in this chamber tonight will recall that it was 3 years ago that i termed the nation welfare system a monstrous consuming outrage an outrage against the community against the taxpayer and particularly against the children that it is supposed to help that system is still an outrage by improving its administration we have been able to reduce some of the abuses as a result last year for the first time in 18 years there has been a halt in the growth of the welfare caseload but as a system our welfare program still needs reform as urgently today as it did when i first proposed in 1969 that we completely replace it with a different system in these final 3 years of my administration i urge the congress to join me in mounting a major new effort to replace the discredited present welfare system with one that works one that is fair to those who need help or can not help themselves fair to the community and fair to the taxpayer and let us have as our goal that there will be no government program which makes it more profitable to go on welfare than to go to work i recognize that from the debates that have taken place within the congress over the past 3 years on this program that we can not expect enactment overnight of a new reform but i do propose that the congress and the administration together make this the year in which we discuss debate and shape such a reform so that it can be enacted as quickly as possible america own prosperity in the years ahead depends on our sharing fully and equitably in an expanding world prosperity historic negotiations will take place this year that will enable us to ensure fair treatment in international markets for american workers american farmers american investors and american consumers it is vital that the authorities contained in the trade bill i submitted to the congress be enacted so that the united states can negotiate flexibly and vigorously on behalf of american interests these negotiations can usher in a new era of international trade that not only increases the prosperity of all nations but also strengthens the peace among all nations in the past 5 years we have made more progress toward a lasting structure of peace in the world than in any comparable time in the nation history we could not have made that progress if we had not maintained the military strength of america thomas jefferson once observed that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance by the same token and for the same reason in today world the price of peace is a strong defense as far as the united states is concerned in the past 5 years we have steadily reduced the burden of national defense as a share of the budget bringing it down from 44 percent in 1969 to 29 percent in the current year we have cut our military manpower over the past 5 years by more than a third from million to million in the coming year however increased expenditures will be needed they will be needed to assure the continued readiness of our military forces to preserve present force levels in the face of rising costs and to give us the military strength we must have if our security is to be maintained and if our initiatives for peace are to succeed the question is not whether we can afford to maintain the necessary strength of our defense the question is whether we can afford not to maintain it and the answer to that question is no we must never allow america to become the second strongest nation in the world i do not say this with any sense of belligerence because i recognize the fact that is recognized around the world america military strength has always been maintained to keep the peace never to break it it has always been used to defend freedom never to destroy it the world peace as well as our own depends on our remaining as strong as we need to be as long as we need to be in this year 1974 we will be negotiating with the soviet union to place further limits on strategic nuclear arms together with our allies we will be negotiating with the nations of the warsaw pact on mutual and balanced reduction of forces in europe and we will continue our efforts to promote peaceful economic development in latin america in africa in asia we will press for full compliance with the peace accords that brought an end to american fighting in indochina including particularly a provision that promised the fullest possible accounting for those americans who are missing in action and having in mind the energy crisis to which i have referred to earlier we will be working with the other nations of the world toward agreement on means by which oil supplies can be assured at reasonable prices on a stable basis in a fair way to the consuming and producing nations alike all of these are steps toward a future in which the world peace and prosperity and ours as well as a result are made more secure throughout the 5 years that i have served as your president i have had one overriding aim and that was to establish a new structure of peace in the world that can free future generations of the scourge of war i can understand that others may have different priorities this has been and this will remain my first priority and the chief legacy i hope to leave from the 8 years of my presidency this does not mean that we shall not have other priorities because as we strengthen the peace we must also continue each year a steady strengthening of our society here at home our conscience requires it our interests require it and we must insist upon it as we create more jobs as we build a better health care system as we improve our education as we develop new sources of energy as we provide more abundantly for the elderly and the poor as we strengthen the system of private enterprise that produces our prosperity as we do all of this and even more we solidify those essential bonds that hold us together as a nation even more importantly we advance what in the final analysis government in america is all about what it is all about is more freedom more security a better life for each one of the 211 million people that live in this land we can not afford to neglect progress at home while pursuing peace abroad but neither can ave afford to neglect peace abroad while pursuing progress at home with a stable peace all is possible but without peace nothing is possible in the written message that i have just delivered to the speaker and to the president of the senate i commented that one of the continuing challenges facing us in the legislative process is that of the timing and pacing of our initiatives selecting each year among many worthy projects those that are ripe for action at that time what is true in terms of our domestic initiatives is true also in the world this period we now are in in the world and i say this as one who has seen so much of the world not only in these past 5 years but going back over many years we are in a period which presents a juncture of historic forces unique in this century they provide an opportunity we may never have again to create a structure of peace solid enough to last a lifetime and more not just peace in our time but peace in our children time as well it is on the way we respond to this opportunity more than anything else that history will judge whether we in america have met our responsibility and i am confident we will meet that great historic responsibility which is ours today it was 27 years ago that john kennedy and i sat in this chamber as freshmen congressmen hearing our first state of the union address delivered by harry truman i know from my talks with him as members of the labor committee on which we both served that neither of us then even dreamed that either one or both might eventually be standing in this place that i now stand in now and that he once stood in before me it may well be that one of the freshmen members of the 93d congress one of you out there will deliver his own state of the union message 27 years from now in the year 2001 well whichever one it is i want you to be able to look back with pride and to say that your first years here were great years and recall that you were here in this 93d congress when america ended its longest war and began its longest peace at this point the president paused to acknowledge applause from the audience he then resumed speaking speaker and president and my distinguished colleagues and our guests i would like to add a personal word with regard to an issue that has been of great concern to all americans over the past year i refer of course to the investigations of the watergate affair as you know i have provided to the special prosecutor voluntarily a great deal of material i believe that i have provided all the material that he needs to conclude his investigations and to proceed to prosecute the guilty and to clear the innocent i believe the time has come to bring that investigation and the other investigations of this matter to an end one year of watergate is enough and the time has come my colleagues for not only the executive the president but the members of congress for all of us to join together in devoting our full energies to these great issues that i have discussed tonight which involve the welfare of all of the american people in so many different ways as well as the peace of the world i recognize that the house judiciary committee has a special responsibility in this area and i want to indicate on this occasion that i will cooperate with the judiciary committee in its investigation i will cooperate so that it can conclude its investigation make its decision and i will cooperate in any way that i consider consistent with my responsibilities to the office of the presidency of the united states there is only one limitation i will follow the precedent that has been followed by and defended by every president from george washington to lyndon johnson of never doing anything that weakens the office of the president of the united states or impairs the ability of the presidents of the future to make the great decisions that are so essential to this nation and the world another point i should like to make very briefly like every member of the house and senate assembled here tonight i was elected to the office that i hold and like every member of the house and senate when i was elected to that office i knew that i was elected for the purpose of doing a job and doing it as well as i possibly can and i want you to know that i have no intention whatever of ever walking away from the job that the people elected me to do for the people of the united states now needless to say it would be understatement if i were not to admit that the year 1973 was not a very easy year for me personally or for my family and as i have already indicated the year 1974 presents very great and serious problems as very great and serious opportunities are also presented but my colleagues this i believe with the help of god who has blessed this land so richly with the cooperation of the congress and with the support of the american people we can and we will make the year 1974 a year of unprecedented progress toward our goal of building a structure of lasting peace in the world and a new prosperity without war in the united states of america
meet tonight time great challenge great opportunities america meet time face great problems home abroad test strength fiber nation also meet time fiber tested proved strong america great good land great good land strong free creative people america single greatest force peace anywhere world today always history base confidence american people achieve future record american people achieved past tonight first time 12 years president united states report congress state union peace every nation world message state union handed speaker house president senate able deal primarily problems peace home america american people rather problems war measures outlined message set agenda truly significant progress nation world 1974 chart going let us see far come 5 years ago steps capitol took oath office president 5 years initiatives undertaken administration world changed america changed result changes america safer today prosperous today greater opportunity people ever history five years ago america war southeast asia locked confrontation soviet union hostile isolation quarter world people lived mainland china five years ago cities burning besieged five years ago college campuses battleground five years ago crime increasing rate struck fear across nation five years ago spiraling rise drug addiction threatening human social tragedy massive proportion program deal five years ago young americans done generation youth still lived shadow military draft five years ago national program preserve environment day day air getting dirtier water getting foul 5 years ago american agriculture practically depressed industry farm families abandoning farm every year look america today find challenged new problems also find record progress confound professional criers doom prophets despair met challenges faced 5 years ago equally confident meeting face today let us see moment met 10 years military involvement troops returned southeast asia returned honor proud fact courageous prisoners war dinner held washington tonight came home heads high feet knees relations soviet union turned away policy confrontation one negotiation first time since world war ii world two strongest powers working together toward peace world people republic china generation hostile isolation begun period peaceful exchange expanding trade peace returned cities campuses rise crime stopped confidently say today finally beginning win war crime right nation capital years ago threatening become crime capital world rate crime cut half massive campaign drug abuse organized rate new heroin addiction vicious threat decreasing rather increasing first time generation young americans drafted armed services united states first time ever organized massive national effort protect environment air getting cleaner water getting purer agriculture depressed prospering farm income 70 percent farm production setting records billions dollars taxpayers paying subsidies cut nearly zero overall americans living abundantly ever today 2 million new jobs created past year alone biggest percentage increase nearly 20 years people earning earn buys ever history past 5 years average american real spendable income really buy income even allowing taxes inflation increased 16 percent despite record achievement turn year ahead hear familiar voice perennial prophets gloom telling us need fight inflation energy shortage america may headed recession let speak issue head recession united states america primarily due energy crisis economy passing difficult period pledge tonight full powers government used keep america economy producing protect jobs america workers engaged long hard fight inflation future ups downs fight congress cooperates efforts hold cost government shall win fight hold cost living american people look back history years stand ones signal achievement administration congress whether one party working together wisdom foresight select particular initiatives nation ready moment right seized moment acted looking year 1974 lies us 10 key areas landmark accomplishments possible year america make national agenda achieve 1974 break back energy crisis lay foundation future capacity meet america energy needs america resources take another giant stride toward lasting peace world continuing policy negotiation rather confrontation great powers concerned also helping toward achievement lasting settlement middle east check rise prices without administering harsh medicine recession move economy steady period growth sustainable level establish new system makes health care available every american dignified manner price afford make states localities responsive needs citizens make crucial breakthrough toward better transportation towns cities across america reform system federal aid education provide needed needed need make historic beginning task defining protecting right personal privacy every american start new road toward reform welfare system bleeds taxpayer corrodes community demeans intended assist together nations world establish economic framework within americans share fully expanding worldwide trade prosperity years ahead open access markets supplies 186 state union messages delivered place history first one priority first priority energy let begin reporting new development know welcome news every american know committed active role helping achieve durable peace middle east basis full implementation security council resolutions 242 338 first step process disengagement egyptian israeli forces taking place hopeful development announce tonight assured personal contacts friendly leaders middle eastern area urgent meeting called immediate future discuss lifting oil embargo encouraging sign however clearly understood friends middle east united states coerced issue regardless outcome meeting cooperation american people energy conservation program already gone long way towards achieving goal deeply dedicated let us everything avoid gasoline rationing united states america last week sent congress comprehensive special message setting forth energy situation recommending legislative measures necessary program meeting needs embargo lifted ease crisis mean end energy shortage america voluntary conservation continue necessary let take occasion pay tribute splendid spirit cooperation american people shown made possible success meeting emergency time new legislation requested also remain necessary therefore urge energy measures proposed made first priority session congress measures require oil companies energy producers provide public necessary information supplies prevent injustice windfall profits result sacrifices millions americans give us organization incentives authorities needed deal emergency move toward meeting needs 1970 year began effort protect environment 1974 must year organize effort provide energy needs decade 21st century move toward celebration 2 years 200th anniversary nation independence let us press vigorously toward goal announced last november project independence let national goal end decade year 1980 united states dependent country energy need provide jobs heat homes keep transportation moving indicate size government commitment spur energy research development plan spend 10 billion federal funds next 5 years enormous amount 5 years private enterprise investing much 200 billion 10 years 500 billion develop new resources new technology new capacity america require energy needs 1980 measure magnitude project undertaking america performs best called biggest tasks truly said america could task tremendous achieved quickly achieved regimentation effort ingenuity free people working free system turning rest agenda 1974 time hand year bring comprehensive high quality health care within reach every american shall propose sweeping new program assure comprehensive health insurance protection millions americans obtain afford vastly improved protection catastrophic illnesses plan maintains high standards quality america health care require additional taxes recognize plans put forward would cost 80 billion even 100 billion would put whole health care system heavy hand federal government wrong approach tried abroad failed way things america kind plan would threaten quality care provided whole health care system right way one builds strengths present system one destroy strengths one based partnership paternalism important let us keep guiding principle health programs government great role play must always make sure doctors working patients federal government many recall state union address 3 years ago commented americans today simply fed government levels recommended sweeping set proposals revitalize state local governments make responsive people serve report today result revenue sharing passed congress measures made progress toward goal 40 years moving power states communities washington begun moving power back washington states communities important people america session congress believe near breakthrough point efforts suggested proposals let people make decisions communities particular provide broad new flexibility federal aid community development economic development education look forward working congress members parties resolving whatever remaining differences legislation make available nearly 5 billion states localities use federal bureaucrat may want people communities want decision think us recognize energy crisis given new urgency need improve public transportation cities rural areas well program proposed year give communities money also freedom balance transportation needs mark strongest federal commitment ever improvement mass transit essential element improvement life towns cities one goal americans agree children best education great nation provide special message last week recommended number important new measures make 1974 year truly significant advances schools children serve congress act proposals flexible funding enable federal dollar meet better particular need particular school district advance funding give school authorities chance make year plans knowing ahead time federal funds going receive special targeting give special help truly disadvantaged among people college students faced rising costs education able draw expanded program loans grants advances needed investment america precious resource next generation urge congress act legislation 1974 one measure truly free society vigor protects liberties individual citizens technology advanced america increasingly encroached one liberties term right personal privacy modern information systems data banks credit records mailing list abuses electronic snooping collection personal data one purpose may used another left millions americans deeply concerned privacy cherish time come therefore major initiative define nature extent basic rights privacy erect new safeguards ensure rights respected shall launch effort year highest levels administration look forward working congress establishing new set standards respect legitimate needs society also recognize personal privacy cardinal principle american liberty many chamber tonight recall 3 years ago termed nation welfare system monstrous consuming outrage outrage community taxpayer particularly children supposed help system still outrage improving administration able reduce abuses result last year first time 18 years halt growth welfare caseload system welfare program still needs reform urgently today first proposed 1969 completely replace different system final 3 years administration urge congress join mounting major new effort replace discredited present welfare system one works one fair need help help fair community fair taxpayer let us goal government program makes profitable go welfare go work recognize debates taken place within congress past 3 years program expect enactment overnight new reform propose congress administration together make year discuss debate shape reform enacted quickly possible america prosperity years ahead depends sharing fully equitably expanding world prosperity historic negotiations take place year enable us ensure fair treatment international markets american workers american farmers american investors american consumers vital authorities contained trade bill submitted congress enacted united states negotiate flexibly vigorously behalf american interests negotiations usher new era international trade increases prosperity nations also strengthens peace among nations past 5 years made progress toward lasting structure peace world comparable time nation history could made progress maintained military strength america thomas jefferson observed price liberty eternal vigilance token reason today world price peace strong defense far united states concerned past 5 years steadily reduced burden national defense share budget bringing 44 percent 1969 29 percent current year cut military manpower past 5 years third million million coming year however increased expenditures needed needed assure continued readiness military forces preserve present force levels face rising costs give us military strength must security maintained initiatives peace succeed question whether afford maintain necessary strength defense question whether afford maintain answer question must never allow america become second strongest nation world say sense belligerence recognize fact recognized around world america military strength always maintained keep peace never break always used defend freedom never destroy world peace well depends remaining strong need long need year 1974 negotiating soviet union place limits strategic nuclear arms together allies negotiating nations warsaw pact mutual balanced reduction forces europe continue efforts promote peaceful economic development latin america africa asia press full compliance peace accords brought end american fighting indochina including particularly provision promised fullest possible accounting americans missing action mind energy crisis referred earlier working nations world toward agreement means oil supplies assured reasonable prices stable basis fair way consuming producing nations alike steps toward future world peace prosperity well result made secure throughout 5 years served president one overriding aim establish new structure peace world free future generations scourge war understand others may different priorities remain first priority chief legacy hope leave 8 years presidency mean shall priorities strengthen peace must also continue year steady strengthening society home conscience requires interests require must insist upon create jobs build better health care system improve education develop new sources energy provide abundantly elderly poor strengthen system private enterprise produces prosperity even solidify essential bonds hold us together nation even importantly advance final analysis government america freedom security better life one 211 million people live land afford neglect progress home pursuing peace abroad neither ave afford neglect peace abroad pursuing progress home stable peace possible without peace nothing possible written message delivered speaker president senate commented one continuing challenges facing us legislative process timing pacing initiatives selecting year among many worthy projects ripe action time true terms domestic initiatives true also world period world say one seen much world past 5 years going back many years period presents juncture historic forces unique century provide opportunity may never create structure peace solid enough last lifetime peace time peace children time well way respond opportunity anything else history judge whether america met responsibility confident meet great historic responsibility today 27 years ago john kennedy sat chamber freshmen congressmen hearing first state union address delivered harry truman know talks members labor committee served neither us even dreamed either one might eventually standing place stand stood may well one freshmen members 93d congress one deliver state union message 27 years year 2001 well whichever one want able look back pride say first years great years recall 93d congress america ended longest war began longest peace point president paused acknowledge applause audience resumed speaking speaker president distinguished colleagues guests would like add personal word regard issue great concern americans past year refer course investigations watergate affair know provided special prosecutor voluntarily great deal material believe provided material needs conclude investigations proceed prosecute guilty clear innocent believe time come bring investigation investigations matter end one year watergate enough time come colleagues executive president members congress us join together devoting full energies great issues discussed tonight involve welfare american people many different ways well peace world recognize house judiciary committee special responsibility area want indicate occasion cooperate judiciary committee investigation cooperate conclude investigation make decision cooperate way consider consistent responsibilities office presidency united states one limitation follow precedent followed defended every president george washington lyndon johnson never anything weakens office president united states impairs ability presidents future make great decisions essential nation world another point like make briefly like every member house senate assembled tonight elected office hold like every member house senate elected office knew elected purpose job well possibly want know intention whatever ever walking away job people elected people united states needless say would understatement admit year 1973 easy year personally family already indicated year 1974 presents great serious problems great serious opportunities also presented colleagues believe help god blessed land richly cooperation congress support american people make year 1974 year unprecedented progress toward goal building structure lasting peace world new prosperity without war united states america
meet tonight time great challenge great opportunity america meet time face great problem home abroad test strength fiber nation also meet time fiber test prove strong america great good land great good land strong free creative people america single great force peace anywhere world today always history base confidence american people achieve future record american people achieve past tonight first time 12 year president unite state report congress state union peace every nation world message state union hand speaker house president senate able deal primarily problem peace home america american people rather problem war measure outline message set agenda truly significant progress nation world 1974 chart go let u see far come 5 year ago step capitol take oath office president 5 year initiatives undertaken administration world change america change result change america safe today prosperous today great opportunity people ever history five year ago america war southeast asia lock confrontation soviet union hostile isolation quarter world people live mainland china five year ago city burn besiege five year ago college campus battleground five year ago crime increase rate strike fear across nation five year ago spiral rise drug addiction threaten human social tragedy massive proportion program deal five year ago young american do generation youth still live shadow military draft five year ago national program preserve environment day day air get dirty water get foul 5 year ago american agriculture practically depress industry farm family abandon farm every year look america today find challenged new problem also find record progress confound professional crier doom prophet despair meet challenge face 5 year ago equally confident meeting face today let u see moment meet 10 year military involvement troop return southeast asia return honor proud fact courageous prisoner war dinner hold washington tonight come home head high foot knee relation soviet union turn away policy confrontation one negotiation first time since world war ii world two strong power work together toward peace world people republic china generation hostile isolation begin period peaceful exchange expand trade peace return city campus rise crime stop confidently say today finally begin win war crime right nation capital year ago threaten become crime capital world rate crime cut half massive campaign drug abuse organize rate new heroin addiction vicious threat decrease rather increase first time generation young american draft armed service united state first time ever organize massive national effort protect environment air get clean water get pure agriculture depress prosper farm income 70 percent farm production setting record billion dollar taxpayer pay subsidy cut nearly zero overall american live abundantly ever today 2 million new job create past year alone big percentage increase nearly 20 year people earn earn buy ever history past 5 year average american real spendable income really buy income even allow tax inflation increase 16 percent despite record achievement turn year ahead hear familiar voice perennial prophet gloom tell u need fight inflation energy shortage america may head recession let speak issue head recession united state america primarily due energy crisis economy pass difficult period pledge tonight full power government use keep america economy produce protect job america worker engage long hard fight inflation future ups down fight congress cooperates effort hold cost government shall win fight hold cost living american people look back history year stand one signal achievement administration congress whether one party work together wisdom foresight select particular initiative nation ready moment right seize moment act look year 1974 lie u 10 key area landmark accomplishment possible year america make national agenda achieve 1974 break back energy crisis lay foundation future capacity meet america energy need america resource take another giant stride toward last peace world continue policy negotiation rather confrontation great power concern also help toward achievement last settlement middle east check rise price without administer harsh medicine recession move economy steady period growth sustainable level establish new system make health care available every american dignified manner price afford make state locality responsive need citizen make crucial breakthrough toward good transportation town city across america reform system federal aid education provide need need need make historic begin task define protect right personal privacy every american start new road toward reform welfare system bleed taxpayer corrodes community demeans intend assist together nation world establish economic framework within american share fully expand worldwide trade prosperity year ahead open access market supply 186 state union message deliver place history first one priority first priority energy let begin report new development know welcome news every american know commit active role help achieve durable peace middle east basis full implementation security council resolutions 242 338 first step process disengagement egyptian israeli force take place hopeful development announce tonight assure personal contact friendly leader middle eastern area urgent meeting call immediate future discus lift oil embargo encourage sign however clearly understood friend middle east united state coerce issue regardless outcome meeting cooperation american people energy conservation program already go long way towards achieve goal deeply dedicated let u everything avoid gasoline ration united state america last week send congress comprehensive special message set forth energy situation recommend legislative measure necessary program meeting need embargo lift ease crisis mean end energy shortage america voluntary conservation continue necessary let take occasion pay tribute splendid spirit cooperation american people show make possible success meeting emergency time new legislation request also remain necessary therefore urge energy measure propose make first priority session congress measure require oil company energy producer provide public necessary information supply prevent injustice windfall profit result sacrifice million american give u organization incentive authority need deal emergency move toward meet need 1970 year begin effort protect environment 1974 must year organize effort provide energy need decade 21st century move toward celebration 2 year 200th anniversary nation independence let u press vigorously toward goal announce last november project independence let national goal end decade year 1980 united state dependent country energy need provide job heat home keep transportation move indicate size government commitment spur energy research development plan spend 10 billion federal fund next 5 year enormous amount 5 year private enterprise invest much 200 billion 10 year 500 billion develop new resource new technology new capacity america require energy need 1980 measure magnitude project undertake america performs best call big task truly say america could task tremendous achieve quickly achieve regimentation effort ingenuity free people work free system turn rest agenda 1974 time hand year bring comprehensive high quality health care within reach every american shall propose sweeping new program assure comprehensive health insurance protection million americans obtain afford vastly improve protection catastrophic illness plan maintain high standard quality america health care require additional tax recognize plan put forward would cost 80 billion even 100 billion would put whole health care system heavy hand federal government wrong approach try abroad failed way thing america kind plan would threaten quality care provide whole health care system right way one build strength present system one destroy strengths one base partnership paternalism important let u keep guide principle health program government great role play must always make sure doctor work patient federal government many recall state union address 3 year ago comment american today simply fed government level recommend sweeping set proposal revitalize state local government make responsive people serve report today result revenue share pass congress measure make progress toward goal 40 year move power state community washington begin move power back washington state community important people america session congress believe near breakthrough point effort suggest proposal let people make decision community particular provide broad new flexibility federal aid community development economic development education look forward work congress member party resolve whatever remain difference legislation make available nearly 5 billion state locality use federal bureaucrat may want people community want decision think u recognize energy crisis give new urgency need improve public transportation city rural area well program propose year give community money also freedom balance transportation need mark strong federal commitment ever improvement mass transit essential element improvement life town city one goal americans agree child best education great nation provide special message last week recommend number important new measure make 1974 year truly significant advance school child serve congress act proposal flexible funding enable federal dollar meet good particular need particular school district advance funding give school authority chance make year plan know ahead time federal fund go receive special target give special help truly disadvantage among people college student face rise cost education able draw expand program loan grant advance need investment america precious resource next generation urge congress act legislation 1974 one measure truly free society vigor protect liberty individual citizen technology advance america increasingly encroach one liberty term right personal privacy modern information system data bank credit record mail list abuse electronic snoop collection personal data one purpose may use another leave million american deeply concerned privacy cherish time come therefore major initiative define nature extent basic right privacy erect new safeguard ensure right respect shall launch effort year high level administration look forward work congress establish new set standard respect legitimate need society also recognize personal privacy cardinal principle american liberty many chamber tonight recall 3 year ago term nation welfare system monstrous consume outrage outrage community taxpayer particularly child suppose help system still outrage improve administration able reduce abuse result last year first time 18 year halt growth welfare caseload system welfare program still need reform urgently today first propose 1969 completely replace different system final 3 year administration urge congress join mount major new effort replace discredit present welfare system one work one fair need help help fair community fair taxpayer let u goal government program make profitable go welfare go work recognize debate take place within congress past 3 year program expect enactment overnight new reform propose congress administration together make year discus debate shape reform enact quickly possible america prosperity year ahead depend share fully equitably expand world prosperity historic negotiation take place year enable u ensure fair treatment international market american worker american farmer american investor american consumer vital authority contain trade bill submit congress enact united state negotiate flexibly vigorously behalf american interest negotiation usher new era international trade increase prosperity nation also strengthen peace among nation past 5 year make progress toward last structure peace world comparable time nation history could make progress maintain military strength america thomas jefferson observe price liberty eternal vigilance token reason today world price peace strong defense far united state concern past 5 year steadily reduce burden national defense share budget bring 44 percent 1969 29 percent current year cut military manpower past 5 year third million million coming year however increase expenditure need needed assure continue readiness military force preserve present force level face rise cost give u military strength must security maintain initiative peace succeed question whether afford maintain necessary strength defense question whether afford maintain answer question must never allow america become second strong nation world say sense belligerence recognize fact recognize around world america military strength always maintain keep peace never break always use defend freedom never destroy world peace well depend remain strong need long need year 1974 negotiating soviet union place limit strategic nuclear arm together ally negotiate nation warsaw pact mutual balance reduction force europe continue effort promote peaceful economic development latin america africa asia press full compliance peace accord bring end american fight indochina include particularly provision promise full possible accounting american miss action mind energy crisis refer earlier work nation world toward agreement mean oil supply assure reasonable price stable basis fair way consume produce nation alike step toward future world peace prosperity well result make secure throughout 5 year serve president one overriding aim establish new structure peace world free future generation scourge war understand others may different priority remain first priority chief legacy hope leave 8 year presidency mean shall priority strengthen peace must also continue year steady strengthen society home conscience require interest require must insist upon create job build good health care system improve education develop new source energy provide abundantly elderly poor strengthen system private enterprise produce prosperity even solidify essential bond hold u together nation even importantly advance final analysis government america freedom security well life one 211 million people live land afford neglect progress home pursue peace abroad neither ave afford neglect peace abroad pursue progress home stable peace possible without peace nothing possible write message deliver speaker president senate comment one continue challenge face u legislative process time pace initiative select year among many worthy project ripe action time true term domestic initiative true also world period world say one see much world past 5 year go back many year period present juncture historic force unique century provide opportunity may never create structure peace solid enough last lifetime peace time peace child time well way respond opportunity anything else history judge whether america meet responsibility confident meet great historic responsibility today 27 year ago john kennedy sit chamber freshman congressman hear first state union address deliver harry truman know talk member labor committee serve neither u even dream either one might eventually stand place stand stood may well one freshman member 93d congress one deliver state union message 27 year year 2001 well whichever one want able look back pride say first year great year recall 93d congress america end long war begin long peace point president pause acknowledge applause audience resume speaking speaker president distinguish colleague guest would like add personal word regard issue great concern american past year refer course investigation watergate affair know provide special prosecutor voluntarily great deal material believe provide material need conclude investigation proceed prosecute guilty clear innocent believe time come bring investigation investigation matter end one year watergate enough time come colleague executive president member congress u join together devote full energy great issue discuss tonight involve welfare american people many different way well peace world recognize house judiciary committee special responsibility area want indicate occasion cooperate judiciary committee investigation cooperate conclude investigation make decision cooperate way consider consistent responsibility office presidency unite state one limitation follow precedent follow defended every president george washington lyndon johnson never anything weakens office president united state impair ability president future make great decision essential nation world another point like make briefly like every member house senate assemble tonight elect office hold like every member house senate elect office knew elect purpose job well possibly want know intention whatever ever walk away job people elected people united state needless say would understatement admit year 1973 easy year personally family already indicate year 1974 present great serious problem great serious opportunity also present colleague believe help god bless land richly cooperation congress support american people make year 1974 year unprecedented progress toward goal building structure last peace world new prosperity without war united state america