Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, distinguished Members of the Congress, honored guests, and fellow citizens: Thank you for allowing me to delay my address until this evening. We paused together to mourn and honor the valor of our seven Challenger heroes. And I hope that we are now ready to do what they would want us to do: Go forward, America, and reach for the stars. We will never forget those brave seven, but we shall go forward. Mr. Speaker, before I begin my prepared remarks, may I point out that tonight marks the 10th and last State of the Union Message that you've presided over. And on behalf of the American people, I want to salute you for your service to Congress and country. Here's to you! [Applause] I have come to review with you the progress of our nation, to speak of unfinished work, and to set our sights on the future. I am pleased to report the state of our Union is stronger than a year ago and growing stronger each day. Tonight we look out on a rising America, firm of heart, united in spirit, powerful in pride and patriotism . America is on the move! But it wasn't long ago that we looked out on a different land: locked factory gates, long gasoline lines, intolerable prices, and interest rates turning the greatest country on Earth into a land of broken dreams. Government growing beyond our consent had become a lumbering giant, slamming shut the gates of opportunity, threatening to crush the very roots of our freedom. What brought America back? The American people brought us back with quiet courage and common sense, with undying faith that in this nation under God the future will be ours; for the future belongs to the free. Tonight the American people deserve our thanks for 37 straight months of economic growth, for sunrise firms and modernized industries creating 9 million new jobs in 3 years, interest rates cut in half, inflation falling over from 12 percent in 1980 to under 4 today, and a mighty river of good works-a record $74 billion in voluntary giving just last year alone. And despite the pressures of our modern world, family and community remain the moral core of our society, guardians of our values and hopes for the future. Family and community are the costars of this great American comeback. They are why we say tonight: Private values must be at the heart of public policies. What is true for families in America is true for America in the family of free nations. History is no captive of some inevitable force. History is made by men and women of vision and courage. Tonight freedom is on the march. The United States is the economic miracle, the model to which the world once again turns. We stand for an idea whose time is now: Only by lifting the weights from the shoulders of all can people truly prosper and can peace among all nations be secure. Teddy Roosevelt said that a nation that does great work lives forever. We have done well, but we cannot stop at the foothills when Everest beckons. It's time for America to be all that we can be. We speak tonight of an agenda for the future, an agenda for a safer, more secure world. And we speak about the necessity for actions to steel us for the challenges of growth, trade, and security in the next decade and the year 2000. And we will do it—not by breaking faith with bedrock principles but by breaking free from failed policies. Let us begin where storm clouds loom darkest—right here in Washington, DC. This week I will send you our detailed proposals; tonight let us speak of our responsibility to redefine government's role: not to control, not to demand or command, not to contain us, but to help in times of need and, above all, to create a ladder of opportunity to full employment so that all Americans can climb toward economic power and justice on their own. But we cannot win the race to the future shackled to a system that can't even pass a Federal budget. We cannot win that race held back by horse-and-buggy programs that waste tax dollars and squander human potential. We cannot win that race if we're swamped in a sea of red ink. Now, Mr. Speaker, you know, I know, and the American people know the Federal budget system is broken. It doesn't work. Before we leave this city, let's you and I work together to fix it, and then we can finally give the American people a balanced budget. Members of Congress, passage of Gramm-Rudman-Hollings gives us an historic opportunity to achieve what has eluded our national leadership for decades: forcing the Federal Government to live within its means. Your schedule now requires that the budget resolution be passed by April 15th, the very day America's families have to foot the bill for the budgets that you produce. How often we read of a husband and wife both working, struggling from paycheck to paycheck to raise a family, meet a mortgage, pay their taxes and bills. And yet some in Congress say taxes must be raised. Well, I'm sorry; they're asking the wrong people to tighten their belts. It's time we reduce the Federal budget and left the family budget alone. We do not face large deficits because American families are undertaxed; we face those deficits because the Federal Government overspends. The detailed budget that we will submit will meet the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings target for deficit reductions, meet our commitment to ensure a strong national defense, meet our commitment to protect Social Security and the truly less fortunate, and, yes, meet our commitment to not raise taxes. How should we accomplish this? Well, not by taking from those in need. As families take care of their own, government must provide shelter and nourishment for those who cannot provide for themselves. But we must revise or replace programs enacted in the name of compassion that degrade the moral worth of work, encourage family breakups, and drive entire communities into a bleak and heartless dependency. Gramm-Rudman-Hollings can mark a dramatic improvement. But experience shows that simply setting deficit targets does not assure they'll be met. We must proceed with Grace commission reforms against waste. And tonight I ask you to give me what 43 Governors have: Give me a line-item veto this year. Give me the authority to veto waste, and I'll take the responsibility, I'll make the cuts, I'll take the heat. This authority would not give me any monopoly power, but simply prevent spending measures from sneaking through that could not pass on their own merit. And you can sustain or override my veto; that's the way the system should work. Once we've made the hard choices, we should lock in our gains with a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. I mentioned that we will meet our commitment to national defense. We must meet it. Defense is not just another budget expense. Keeping America strong, free, and at peace is solely the responsibility of the Federal Government; it is government's prime responsibility. We have devoted 5 years trying to narrow a dangerous gap born of illusion and neglect, and we've made important gains. Yet the threat from Soviet forces, conventional and strategic, from the Soviet drive for domination, from the increase in espionage and state terror remains great. This is reality. Closing our eyes will not make reality disappear. We pledged together to hold real growth in defense spending to the bare minimum. My budget honors that pledge, and I'm now asking you, the Congress, to keep its end of the bargain. The Soviets must know that if America reduces her defenses, it will be because of a reduced threat, not a reduced resolve. Keeping America strong is as vital to the national security as controlling Federal spending is to our economic security. But, as I have said before, the most powerful force we can enlist against the Federal deficit is an ever-expanding American economy, unfettered and free. The magic of opportunity-unreserved, unfailing, unrestrained-isn't this the calling that unites us? I believe our tax rate cuts for the people have done more to spur a spirit of risk-taking and help America's economy break free than any program since John Kennedy's tax cut almost a quarter century ago. Now history calls us to press on, to complete efforts for an historic tax reform providing new opportunity for all and ensuring that all pay their fair share, but no more. We've come this far. Will you join me now, and we'll walk this last mile together? You know my views on this. We cannot and we will not accept tax reform that is a tax increase in disguise. True reform must be an engine of productivity and growth, and that means a top personal rate no higher than 35 percent. True reform must be truly fair, and that means raising personal exemptions to $2,000. True reform means a tax system that at long last is profamily, projobs, profuture, and pro-America. As we knock down the barriers to growth, we must redouble our efforts for freer and fairer trade. We have already taken actions to counter unfair trading practices and to pry open closed foreign markets. We will continue to do so. We will also oppose legislation touted as providing protection that in reality pits one American worker against another, one industry against another, one community against another, and that raises prices for us all. If the United States can trade with other nations on a level playing field, we can outproduce, outcompete, and outsell anybody, anywhere in the world. The constant expansion of our economy and exports requires a sound and stable dollar at home and reliable exchange rates around the world. We must never again permit wild currency swings to cripple our farmers and other exporters. Farmers, in particular, have suffered from past unwise government policies. They must not be abandoned with problems they did not create and cannot control. We've begun coordinating economic and monetary policy among our major trading partners. But there's more to do, and tonight I am directing Treasury Secretary Jim Baker to determine if the nations of the world should convene to discuss the role and relationship of our currencies. Confident in our future and secure in our values, Americans are striving forward to embrace the future. We see it not only in our recovery but in 3 straight years of falling crime rates, as families and communities band together to fight pornography, drugs, and lawlessness and to give back to their children the safe and, yes, innocent childhood they deserve. We see it in the renaissance in education, the rising SAT scores for 3 years—last year's increase, the greatest since 1963. It wasn't government and Washington lobbies that turned education around; it was the American people who, in reaching for excellence, knew to reach back to basics. We must continue the advance by supporting discipline in our schools, vouchers that give parents freedom of choice; and we must give back to our children their lost right to acknowledge God in their classrooms. We are a nation of idealists, yet today there is a wound in our national conscience. America will never be whole as long as the right to life granted by our Creator is denied to the unborn. For the rest of my time, I shall do what I can to see that this wound is one day healed. As we work to make the American dream real for all, we must also look to the condition of America's families. Struggling parents today worry how they will provide their children the advantages that their parents gave them. In the welfare culture, the breakdown of the family, the most basic support system, has reached crisis proportions—'m female and child poverty, child abandonment, horrible crimes, and deteriorating schools. After hundreds of billions of dollars in poverty programs, the plight of the poor grows more painful. But the waste in dollars and cents pales before the most tragic loss: the sinful waste of human spirit and potential. We can ignore this terrible truth no longer. As Franklin Roosevelt warned 51 years ago, standing before this Chamber, he said, "Welfare is a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit." And we must now escape the spider's web of dependency. Tonight I am charging the White House Domestic Council to present me by December 1, 1986, an evaluation of programs and a strategy for immediate action to meet the financial, educational, social, and safety concerns of poor families. I'm talking about real and lasting emancipation, because the success of welfare should be judged by how many of its recipients become independent of welfare. Further, after seeing how devastating illness can destroy the financial security of the family, I am directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Otis Bowen, to report to me by year end with recommendations on how the private sector and government can work together to address the problems of affordable insurance for those whose life savings would otherwise be threatened when catastrophic illness strikes. And tonight I want to speak directly to America's younger generation, because you hold the destiny of our nation in your hands. With all the temptations young people face, it sometimes seems the allure of the permissive society requires superhuman feats of self-control. But the call of the future is too strong, the challenge too great to get lost in the blind alleyways of dissolution, drugs, and despair. Never has there been a more exciting time to be alive, a time of rousing wonder and heroic achievement. As they said in the film "Back to the Future," "Where we're going, we don't need roads." Well, today physicists peering into the infinitely small realms of subatomic particles find reaffirmations of religious faith. Astronomers build a space telescope that can see to the edge of the universe and possibly back to the moment of creation. So, yes, this nation remains fully committed to America's space program. We're going forward with our shuttle flights. We're going forward to build our space station. And we are going forward with research on a new Orient Express that could, by the end of the next decade, take off from Dulles Airport , accelerate up to 25 times the speed of sound, attaining low Earth orbit or flying to Tokyo within 2 hours. And the same technology transforming our lives can solve the greatest problem of the 20th century. A security shield can one day render nuclear weapons obsolete and free mankind from the prison of nuclear terror. America met one historic challenge and went to the Moon. Now America must meet another: to make our strategic defense real for all the citizens of planet Earth. Let us speak of our deepest longing for the future: to leave our children a land that is free and just and a world at peace. It is my hope that our fireside summit in Geneva and Mr. Gorbachev's upcoming visit to America can lead to a more stable relationship. Surely no people on Earth hate war or love peace more than we Americans. But we cannot stroll into the future with childlike faith. Our differences with a system that openly proclaims and practices an alleged right to command people's lives and to export its ideology by force are deep and abiding. Logic and history compel us to accept that our relationship be guided by realism—rock-hard, cleareyed, steady, and sure. Our negotiators in Geneva have proposed a radical cut in offensive forces by each side with no cheating. They have made clear that Soviet compliance with the letter and spirit of agreements is essential. If the Soviet Government wants an agreement that truly reduces nuclear arms, there will be such an agreement. But arms control is no substitute for peace. We know that peace follows in freedom's path and conflicts erupt when the will of the people is denied. So, we must prepare for peace not only by reducing weapons but by bolstering prosperity, liberty, and democracy however and wherever we can. We advance the promise of opportunity every time we speak out on behalf of lower tax rates, freer markets, sound currencies around the world. We strengthen the family of freedom every time we work with allies and come to the aid of friends under siege. And we can enlarge the family of free nations if we will defend the unalienable rights of all God's children to follow their dreams. To those imprisoned in regimes held captive, to those beaten for daring to fight for freedom and democracy—for their right to worship, to speak, to live, and to prosper in the family of free nations—we say to you tonight: You are not alone, freedom fighters. America will support with moral and material assistance your right not just to fight and die for freedom but to fight and win freedom—to win freedom in Afghanistan, in Angola, in Cambodia, and in Nicaragua. This is a great moral challenge for the entire free world. Surely no issue is more important for peace in our own hemisphere, for the security of our frontiers, for the protection of our vital interests, than to achieve democracy in Nicaragua and to protect Nicaragua's democratic neighbors. This year I will be asking Congress for the means to do what must be done for that great and good cause. As [former Senator Henry M.] Scoop Jackson, the inspiration for our Bipartisan Commission on Central America, once said, "In matters of national security, the best politics is no politics." What we accomplish this year, in each challenge we face, will set our course for the balance of the decade, indeed, for the remainder of the century. After all we've done so far, let no one say that this nation cannot reach the destiny of our dreams. America believes, America is ready, America can win the race to the future—and we shall. The American dream is a song of hope that rings through night winter air; vivid, tender music that warms our hearts when the least among us aspire to the greatest things: to venture a daring enterprise; to unearth new beauty in music, literature, and art; to discover a new universe inside a tiny silicon chip or a single human cell. We see the dream coming true in the spirit of discovery of Richard Cavoli. All his life he's been enthralled by the mysteries of medicine. And, Richard, we know that the experiment that you began in high school was launched and lost last week, yet your dream lives. And as long as it's real, work of noble note will yet be done, work that could reduce the harmful effects of x rays on patients and enable astronomers to view the golden gateways of the farthest stars. We see the dream glow in the towering talent of a 12-year-old, Tyrone Ford. A child prodigy of gospel music, he has surmounted personal adversity to become an accomplished pianist and singer. He also directs the choirs of three churches and has performed at the Kennedy Center. With God as your composer, Tyrone, your music will be the music of angels. We see the dream being saved by the courage of the 13-year-old Shelby Butler, honor student and member of her school's safety patrol. Seeing another girl freeze in terror before an out-of-control school bus, she risked her life and pulled her to safety. With bravery like yours, Shelby, America need never fear for our future. And we see the dream born again in the joyful compassion of a 13 year old, Trevor Ferrell. Two years ago, age 11, watching men and women bedding down in abandoned doorways—on television he was watching—Trevor left his suburban Philadelphia home to bring blankets and food to the helpless and homeless. And now 250 people help him fulfill his nightly vigil. Trevor, yours is the living spirit of brotherly love. Would you four stand up for a moment? Thank you, thank you. You are heroes of our hearts. We look at you and know it's true: In this land of dreams fulfilled, where greater dreams may be imagined, nothing is impossible, no victory is beyond our reach, no glory will ever be too great. So, now it's up to us, all of us, to prepare America for that day when our work will pale before the greatness of America's champions in the 21st century. The world's hopes rest with America's future; America's hopes rest with us. So, let us go forward to create our world of tomorrow in faith, in unity, and in love. 
God bless you, and God bless America.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, distinguished Members of the Congress, honored guests, and fellow citizens: Thank you for allowing me to delay my address until this evening. We paused together to mourn and honor the valor of our seven Challenger heroes. And I hope that we are now ready to do what they would want us to do: Go forward, America, and reach for the stars. We will never forget those brave seven, but we shall go forward. Mr. Speaker, before I begin my prepared remarks, may I point out that tonight marks the 10th and last State of the Union Message that you have presided over. And on behalf of the American people, I want to salute you for your service to Congress and country. Here is to you! [Applause] I have come to review with you the progress of our nation, to speak of unfinished work, and to set our sights on the future. I am pleased to report the state of our Union is stronger than a year ago and growing stronger each day. Tonight we look out on a rising America, firm of heart, united in spirit, powerful in pride and patriotism . America is on the move! But it was not long ago that we looked out on a different land: locked factory gates, long gasoline lines, intolerable prices, and interest rates turning the greatest country on Earth into a land of broken dreams. Government growing beyond our consent had become a lumbering giant, slamming shut the gates of opportunity, threatening to crush the very roots of our freedom. What brought America back? The American people brought us back with quiet courage and common sense, with undying faith that in this nation under God the future will be ours; for the future belongs to the free. Tonight the American people deserve our thanks for 37 straight months of economic growth, for sunrise firms and modernized industries creating 9 million new jobs in 3 years, interest rates cut in half, inflation falling over from 12 percent in 1980 to under 4 today, and a mighty river of good works-a record $74 billion in voluntary giving just last year alone. And despite the pressures of our modern world, family and community remain the moral core of our society, guardians of our values and hopes for the future. Family and community are the costars of this great American comeback. They are why we say tonight: Private values must be at the heart of public policies. What is true for families in America is true for America in the family of free nations. History is no captive of some inevitable force. History is made by men and women of vision and courage. Tonight freedom is on the march. The United States is the economic miracle, the model to which the world once again turns. We stand for an idea whose time is now: Only by lifting the weights from the shoulders of all can people truly prosper and can peace among all nations be secure. Teddy Roosevelt said that a nation that does great work lives forever. We have done well, but we cannot stop at the foothills when Everest beckons. It is time for America to be all that we can be. We speak tonight of an agenda for the future, an agenda for a safer, more secure world. And we speak about the necessity for actions to steel us for the challenges of growth, trade, and security in the next decade and the year 2000. And we will do it—not by breaking faith with bedrock principles but by breaking free from failed policies. Let us begin where storm clouds loom darkest—right here in Washington, DC. This week I will send you our detailed proposals; tonight let us speak of our responsibility to redefine government's role: not to control, not to demand or command, not to contain us, but to help in times of need and, above all, to create a ladder of opportunity to full employment so that all Americans can climb toward economic power and justice on their own. But we cannot win the race to the future shackled to a system that cannot even pass a Federal budget. We cannot win that race held back by horse-and-buggy programs that waste tax dollars and squander human potential. We cannot win that race if we are swamped in a sea of red ink. Now, Mr. Speaker, you know, I know, and the American people know the Federal budget system is broken. It does not work. Before we leave this city, let us you and I work together to fix it, and then we can finally give the American people a balanced budget. Members of Congress, passage of Gramm-Rudman-Hollings gives us an historic opportunity to achieve what has eluded our national leadership for decades: forcing the Federal Government to live within its means. Your schedule now requires that the budget resolution be passed by April 15th, the very day America's families have to foot the bill for the budgets that you produce. How often we read of a husband and wife both working, struggling from paycheck to paycheck to raise a family, meet a mortgage, pay their taxes and bills. And yet some in Congress say taxes must be raised. Well, I am sorry; they are asking the wrong people to tighten their belts. It is time we reduce the Federal budget and left the family budget alone. We do not face large deficits because American families are undertaxed; we face those deficits because the Federal Government overspends. The detailed budget that we will submit will meet the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings target for deficit reductions, meet our commitment to ensure a strong national defense, meet our commitment to protect Social Security and the truly less fortunate, and, yes, meet our commitment to not raise taxes. How should we accomplish this? Well, not by taking from those in need. As families take care of their own, government must provide shelter and nourishment for those who cannot provide for themselves. But we must revise or replace programs enacted in the name of compassion that degrade the moral worth of work, encourage family breakups, and drive entire communities into a bleak and heartless dependency. Gramm-Rudman-Hollings can mark a dramatic improvement. But experience shows that simply setting deficit targets does not assure they will be met. We must proceed with Grace commission reforms against waste. And tonight I ask you to give me what 43 Governors have: Give me a line-item veto this year. Give me the authority to veto waste, and I will take the responsibility, I will make the cuts, I will take the heat. This authority would not give me any monopoly power, but simply prevent spending measures from sneaking through that could not pass on their own merit. And you can sustain or override my veto; that is the way the system should work. Once we have made the hard choices, we should lock in our gains with a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. I mentioned that we will meet our commitment to national defense. We must meet it. Defense is not just another budget expense. Keeping America strong, free, and at peace is solely the responsibility of the Federal Government; it is government's prime responsibility. We have devoted 5 years trying to narrow a dangerous gap born of illusion and neglect, and we have made important gains. Yet the threat from Soviet forces, conventional and strategic, from the Soviet drive for domination, from the increase in espionage and state terror remains great. This is reality. Closing our eyes will not make reality disappear. We pledged together to hold real growth in defense spending to the bare minimum. My budget honors that pledge, and I am now asking you, the Congress, to keep its end of the bargain. The Soviets must know that if America reduces her defenses, it will be because of a reduced threat, not a reduced resolve. Keeping America strong is as vital to the national security as controlling Federal spending is to our economic security. But, as I have said before, the most powerful force we can enlist against the Federal deficit is an ever-expanding American economy, unfettered and free. The magic of opportunity-unreserved, unfailing, unrestrained-is not this the calling that unites us? I believe our tax rate cuts for the people have done more to spur a spirit of risk-taking and help America's economy break free than any program since John Kennedy's tax cut almost a quarter century ago. Now history calls us to press on, to complete efforts for an historic tax reform providing new opportunity for all and ensuring that all pay their fair share, but no more. We have come this far. Will you join me now, and we will walk this last mile together? You know my views on this. We cannot and we will not accept tax reform that is a tax increase in disguise. True reform must be an engine of productivity and growth, and that means a top personal rate no higher than 35 percent. True reform must be truly fair, and that means raising personal exemptions to $2,000. True reform means a tax system that at long last is profamily, projobs, profuture, and pro-America. As we knock down the barriers to growth, we must redouble our efforts for freer and fairer trade. We have already taken actions to counter unfair trading practices and to pry open closed foreign markets. We will continue to do so. We will also oppose legislation touted as providing protection that in reality pits one American worker against another, one industry against another, one community against another, and that raises prices for us all. If the United States can trade with other nations on a level playing field, we can outproduce, outcompete, and outsell anybody, anywhere in the world. The constant expansion of our economy and exports requires a sound and stable dollar at home and reliable exchange rates around the world. We must never again permit wild currency swings to cripple our farmers and other exporters. Farmers, in particular, have suffered from past unwise government policies. They must not be abandoned with problems they did not create and cannot control. We have begun coordinating economic and monetary policy among our major trading partners. But there is more to do, and tonight I am directing Treasury Secretary Jim Baker to determine if the nations of the world should convene to discuss the role and relationship of our currencies. Confident in our future and secure in our values, Americans are striving forward to embrace the future. We see it not only in our recovery but in 3 straight years of falling crime rates, as families and communities band together to fight pornography, drugs, and lawlessness and to give back to their children the safe and, yes, innocent childhood they deserve. We see it in the renaissance in education, the rising SAT scores for 3 years—last year's increase, the greatest since 1963. It was not government and Washington lobbies that turned education around; it was the American people who, in reaching for excellence, knew to reach back to basics. We must continue the advance by supporting discipline in our schools, vouchers that give parents freedom of choice; and we must give back to our children their lost right to acknowledge God in their classrooms. We are a nation of idealists, yet today there is a wound in our national conscience. America will never be whole as long as the right to life granted by our Creator is denied to the unborn. For the rest of my time, I shall do what I can to see that this wound is one day healed. As we work to make the American dream real for all, we must also look to the condition of America's families. Struggling parents today worry how they will provide their children the advantages that their parents gave them. In the welfare culture, the breakdown of the family, the most basic support system, has reached crisis proportions—'m female and child poverty, child abandonment, horrible crimes, and deteriorating schools. After hundreds of billions of dollars in poverty programs, the plight of the poor grows more painful. But the waste in dollars and cents pales before the most tragic loss: the sinful waste of human spirit and potential. We can ignore this terrible truth no longer. As Franklin Roosevelt warned 51 years ago, standing before this Chamber, he said, "Welfare is a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit." And we must now escape the spider's web of dependency. Tonight I am charging the White House Domestic Council to present me by December 1, 1986, an evaluation of programs and a strategy for immediate action to meet the financial, educational, social, and safety concerns of poor families. I am talking about real and lasting emancipation, because the success of welfare should be judged by how many of its recipients become independent of welfare. Further, after seeing how devastating illness can destroy the financial security of the family, I am directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Otis Bowen, to report to me by year end with recommendations on how the private sector and government can work together to address the problems of affordable insurance for those whose life savings would otherwise be threatened when catastrophic illness strikes. And tonight I want to speak directly to America's younger generation, because you hold the destiny of our nation in your hands. With all the temptations young people face, it sometimes seems the allure of the permissive society requires superhuman feats of self-control. But the call of the future is too strong, the challenge too great to get lost in the blind alleyways of dissolution, drugs, and despair. Never has there been a more exciting time to be alive, a time of rousing wonder and heroic achievement. As they said in the film "Back to the Future," "Where we are going, we do not need roads." Well, today physicists peering into the infinitely small realms of subatomic particles find reaffirmations of religious faith. Astronomers build a space telescope that can see to the edge of the universe and possibly back to the moment of creation. So, yes, this nation remains fully committed to America's space program. We are going forward with our shuttle flights. We are going forward to build our space station. And we are going forward with research on a new Orient Express that could, by the end of the next decade, take off from Dulles Airport , accelerate up to 25 times the speed of sound, attaining low Earth orbit or flying to Tokyo within 2 hours. And the same technology transforming our lives can solve the greatest problem of the 20th century. A security shield can one day render nuclear weapons obsolete and free mankind from the prison of nuclear terror. America met one historic challenge and went to the Moon. Now America must meet another: to make our strategic defense real for all the citizens of planet Earth. Let us speak of our deepest longing for the future: to leave our children a land that is free and just and a world at peace. It is my hope that our fireside summit in Geneva and Mr. Gorbachev's upcoming visit to America can lead to a more stable relationship. Surely no people on Earth hate war or love peace more than we Americans. But we cannot stroll into the future with childlike faith. Our differences with a system that openly proclaims and practices an alleged right to command people's lives and to export its ideology by force are deep and abiding. Logic and history compel us to accept that our relationship be guided by realism—rock-hard, cleareyed, steady, and sure. Our negotiators in Geneva have proposed a radical cut in offensive forces by each side with no cheating. They have made clear that Soviet compliance with the letter and spirit of agreements is essential. If the Soviet Government wants an agreement that truly reduces nuclear arms, there will be such an agreement. But arms control is no substitute for peace. We know that peace follows in freedom's path and conflicts erupt when the will of the people is denied. So, we must prepare for peace not only by reducing weapons but by bolstering prosperity, liberty, and democracy however and wherever we can. We advance the promise of opportunity every time we speak out on behalf of lower tax rates, freer markets, sound currencies around the world. We strengthen the family of freedom every time we work with allies and come to the aid of friends under siege. And we can enlarge the family of free nations if we will defend the unalienable rights of all God's children to follow their dreams. To those imprisoned in regimes held captive, to those beaten for daring to fight for freedom and democracy—for their right to worship, to speak, to live, and to prosper in the family of free nations—we say to you tonight: You are not alone, freedom fighters. America will support with moral and material assistance your right not just to fight and die for freedom but to fight and win freedom—to win freedom in Afghanistan, in Angola, in Cambodia, and in Nicaragua. This is a great moral challenge for the entire free world. Surely no issue is more important for peace in our own hemisphere, for the security of our frontiers, for the protection of our vital interests, than to achieve democracy in Nicaragua and to protect Nicaragua's democratic neighbors. This year I will be asking Congress for the means to do what must be done for that great and good because. As [former Senator Henry M.] Scoop Jackson, the inspiration for our Bipartisan Commission on Central America, once said, "In matters of national security, the best politics is no politics." What we accomplish this year, in each challenge we face, will set our course for the balance of the decade, indeed, for the remainder of the century. After all we have done so far, let no one say that this nation cannot reach the destiny of our dreams. America believes, America is ready, America can win the race to the future—and we shall. The American dream is a song of hope that rings through night winter air; vivid, tender music that warms our hearts when the least among us aspire to the greatest things: to venture a daring enterprise; to unearth new beauty in music, literature, and art; to discover a new universe inside a tiny silicon chip or a single human cell. We see the dream coming true in the spirit of discovery of Richard Cavoli. All his life he is been enthralled by the mysteries of medicine. And, Richard, we know that the experiment that you began in high school was launched and lost last week, yet your dream lives. And as long as it is real, work of noble note will yet be done, work that could reduce the harmful effects of x rays on patients and enable astronomers to view the golden gateways of the farthest stars. We see the dream glow in the towering talent of a 12-year-old, Tyrone Ford. A child prodigy of gospel music, he has surmounted personal adversity to become an accomplished pianist and singer. He also directs the choirs of three churches and has performed at the Kennedy Center. With God as your composer, Tyrone, your music will be the music of angels. We see the dream being saved by the courage of the 13-year-old Shelby Butler, honor student and member of her school's safety patrol. Seeing another girl freeze in terror before an out-of-control school bus, she risked her life and pulled her to safety. With bravery like yours, Shelby, America need never fear for our future. And we see the dream born again in the joyful compassion of a 13 year old, Trevor Ferrell. Two years ago, age 11, watching men and women bedding down in abandoned doorways—on television he was watching—Trevor left his suburban Philadelphia home to bring blankets and food to the helpless and homeless. And now 250 people help him fulfill his nightly vigil. Trevor, yours is the living spirit of brotherly love. Would you four stand up for a moment? Thank you, thank you. You are heroes of our hearts. We look at you and know it is true: In this land of dreams fulfilled, where greater dreams may be imagined, nothing is impossible, no victory is beyond our reach, no glory will ever be too great. So, now it is up to us, all of us, to prepare America for that day when our work will pale before the greatness of America's champions in the 21st century. The world's hopes rest with America's future; America's hopes rest with us. So, let us go forward to create our world of tomorrow in faith, in unity, and in love. God bless you, and God bless America.
speaker president distinguished members of the congress honored guests and fellow citizens thank you for allowing me to delay my address until this evening we paused together to mourn and honor the valor of our seven challenger heroes and i hope that we are now ready to do what they would want us to do go forward america and reach for the stars we will never forget those brave seven but we shall go forward speaker before i begin my prepared remarks may i point out that tonight marks the 10th and last state of the union message that you have presided over and on behalf of the american people i want to salute you for your service to congress and country here is to you applause i have come to review with you the progress of our nation to speak of unfinished work and to set our sights on the future i am pleased to report the state of our union is stronger than a year ago and growing stronger each day tonight we look out on a rising america firm of heart united in spirit powerful in pride and patriotism america is on the move but it was not long ago that we looked out on a different land locked factory gates long gasoline lines intolerable prices and interest rates turning the greatest country on earth into a land of broken dreams government growing beyond our consent had become a lumbering giant slamming shut the gates of opportunity threatening to crush the very roots of our freedom what brought america back the american people brought us back with quiet courage and common sense with undying faith that in this nation under god the future will be ours for the future belongs to the free tonight the american people deserve our thanks for 37 straight months of economic growth for sunrise firms and modernized industries creating 9 million new jobs in 3 years interest rates cut in half inflation falling over from 12 percent in 1980 to under 4 today and a mighty river of good record 74 billion in voluntary giving just last year alone and despite the pressures of our modern world family and community remain the moral core of our society guardians of our values and hopes for the future family and community are the costars of this great american comeback they are why we say tonight private values must be at the heart of public policies what is true for families in america is true for america in the family of free nations history is no captive of some inevitable force history is made by men and women of vision and courage tonight freedom is on the march the united states is the economic miracle the model to which the world once again turns we stand for an idea whose time is now only by lifting the weights from the shoulders of all can people truly prosper and can peace among all nations be secure teddy roosevelt said that a nation that does great work lives forever we have done well but we can not stop at the foothills when everest beckons it is time for america to be all that we can be we speak tonight of an agenda for the future an agenda for a safer more secure world and we speak about the necessity for actions to steel us for the challenges of growth trade and security in the next decade and the year 2000 and we will do by breaking faith with bedrock principles but by breaking free from failed policies let us begin where storm clouds loom here in washington dc this week i will send you our detailed proposals tonight let us speak of our responsibility to redefine government role not to control not to demand or command not to contain us but to help in times of need and above all to create a ladder of opportunity to full employment so that all americans can climb toward economic power and justice on their own but we can not win the race to the future shackled to a system that can not even pass a federal budget we can not win that race held back by programs that waste tax dollars and squander human potential we can not win that race if we are swamped in a sea of red ink now speaker you know i know and the american people know the federal budget system is broken it does not work before we leave this city let us you and i work together to fix it and then we can finally give the american people a balanced budget members of congress passage of gives us an historic opportunity to achieve what has eluded our national leadership for decades forcing the federal government to live within its means your schedule now requires that the budget resolution be passed by april 15th the very day america families have to foot the bill for the budgets that you produce how often we read of a husband and wife both working struggling from paycheck to paycheck to raise a family meet a mortgage pay their taxes and bills and yet some in congress say taxes must be raised well i am sorry they are asking the wrong people to tighten their belts it is time we reduce the federal budget and left the family budget alone we do not face large deficits because american families are undertaxed we face those deficits because the federal government overspends the detailed budget that we will submit will meet the target for deficit reductions meet our commitment to ensure a strong national defense meet our commitment to protect social security and the truly less fortunate and yes meet our commitment to not raise taxes how should we accomplish this well not by taking from those in need as families take care of their own government must provide shelter and nourishment for those who can not provide for themselves but we must revise or replace programs enacted in the name of compassion that degrade the moral worth of work encourage family breakups and drive entire communities into a bleak and heartless dependency can mark a dramatic improvement but experience shows that simply setting deficit targets does not assure they will be met we must proceed with grace commission reforms against waste and tonight i ask you to give me what 43 governors have give me a veto this year give me the authority to veto waste and i will take the responsibility i will make the cuts i will take the heat this authority would not give me any monopoly power but simply prevent spending measures from sneaking through that could not pass on their own merit and you can sustain or override my veto that is the way the system should work once we have made the hard choices we should lock in our gains with a balanced budget amendment to the constitution i mentioned that we will meet our commitment to national defense we must meet it defense is not just another budget expense keeping america strong free and at peace is solely the responsibility of the federal government it is government prime responsibility we have devoted 5 years trying to narrow a dangerous gap born of illusion and neglect and we have made important gains yet the threat from soviet forces conventional and strategic from the soviet drive for domination from the increase in espionage and state terror remains great this is reality closing our eyes will not make reality disappear we pledged together to hold real growth in defense spending to the bare minimum my budget honors that pledge and i am now asking you the congress to keep its end of the bargain the soviets must know that if america reduces her defenses it will be because of a reduced threat not a reduced resolve keeping america strong is as vital to the national security as controlling federal spending is to our economic security but as i have said before the most powerful force we can enlist against the federal deficit is an american economy unfettered and free the magic of unfailing not this the calling that unites us i believe our tax rate cuts for the people have done more to spur a spirit of and help america economy break free than any program since john kennedy tax cut almost a quarter century ago now history calls us to press on to complete efforts for an historic tax reform providing new opportunity for all and ensuring that all pay their fair share but no more we have come this far will you join me now and we will walk this last mile together you know my views on this we can not and we will not accept tax reform that is a tax increase in disguise true reform must be an engine of productivity and growth and that means a top personal rate no higher than 35 percent true reform must be truly fair and that means raising personal exemptions to true reform means a tax system that at long last is profamily projobs profuture and as we knock down the barriers to growth we must redouble our efforts for freer and fairer trade we have already taken actions to counter unfair trading practices and to pry open closed foreign markets we will continue to do so we will also oppose legislation touted as providing protection that in reality pits one american worker against another one industry against another one community against another and that raises prices for us all if the united states can trade with other nations on a level playing field we can outproduce outcompete and outsell anybody anywhere in the world the constant expansion of our economy and exports requires a sound and stable dollar at home and reliable exchange rates around the world we must never again permit wild currency swings to cripple our farmers and other exporters farmers in particular have suffered from past unwise government policies they must not be abandoned with problems they did not create and can not control we have begun coordinating economic and monetary policy among our major trading partners but there is more to do and tonight i am directing treasury secretary jim baker to determine if the nations of the world should convene to discuss the role and relationship of our currencies confident in our future and secure in our values americans are striving forward to embrace the future we see it not only in our recovery but in 3 straight years of falling crime rates as families and communities band together to fight pornography drugs and lawlessness and to give back to their children the safe and yes innocent childhood they deserve we see it in the renaissance in education the rising sat scores for 3 year increase the greatest since 1963 it was not government and washington lobbies that turned education around it was the american people who in reaching for excellence knew to reach back to basics we must continue the advance by supporting discipline in our schools vouchers that give parents freedom of choice and we must give back to our children their lost right to acknowledge god in their classrooms we are a nation of idealists yet today there is a wound in our national conscience america will never be whole as long as the right to life granted by our creator is denied to the unborn for the rest of my time i shall do what i can to see that this wound is one day healed as we work to make the american dream real for all we must also look to the condition of america families struggling parents today worry how they will provide their children the advantages that their parents gave them in the welfare culture the breakdown of the family the most basic support system has reached crisis female and child poverty child abandonment horrible crimes and deteriorating schools after hundreds of billions of dollars in poverty programs the plight of the poor grows more painful but the waste in dollars and cents pales before the most tragic loss the sinful waste of human spirit and potential we can ignore this terrible truth no longer as franklin roosevelt warned 51 years ago standing before this chamber he said welfare is a narcotic a subtle destroyer of the human spirit and we must now escape the spider web of dependency tonight i am charging the white house domestic council to present me by december 1 1986 an evaluation of programs and a strategy for immediate action to meet the financial educational social and safety concerns of poor families i am talking about real and lasting emancipation because the success of welfare should be judged by how many of its recipients become independent of welfare further after seeing how devastating illness can destroy the financial security of the family i am directing the secretary of health and human services otis bowen to report to me by year end with recommendations on how the private sector and government can work together to address the problems of affordable insurance for those whose life savings would otherwise be threatened when catastrophic illness strikes and tonight i want to speak directly to america younger generation because you hold the destiny of our nation in your hands with all the temptations young people face it sometimes seems the allure of the permissive society requires superhuman feats of but the call of the future is too strong the challenge too great to get lost in the blind alleyways of dissolution drugs and despair never has there been a more exciting time to be alive a time of rousing wonder and heroic achievement as they said in the film back to the future where we are going we do not need roads well today physicists peering into the infinitely small realms of subatomic particles find reaffirmations of religious faith astronomers build a space telescope that can see to the edge of the universe and possibly back to the moment of creation so yes this nation remains fully committed to america space program we are going forward with our shuttle flights we are going forward to build our space station and we are going forward with research on a new orient express that could by the end of the next decade take off from dulles airport accelerate up to 25 times the speed of sound attaining low earth orbit or flying to tokyo within 2 hours and the same technology transforming our lives can solve the greatest problem of the 20th century a security shield can one day render nuclear weapons obsolete and free mankind from the prison of nuclear terror america met one historic challenge and went to the moon now america must meet another to make our strategic defense real for all the citizens of planet earth let us speak of our deepest longing for the future to leave our children a land that is free and just and a world at peace it is my hope that our fireside summit in geneva and gorbachev upcoming visit to america can lead to a more stable relationship surely no people on earth hate war or love peace more than we americans but we can not stroll into the future with childlike faith our differences with a system that openly proclaims and practices an alleged right to command people lives and to export its ideology by force are deep and abiding logic and history compel us to accept that our relationship be guided by cleareyed steady and sure our negotiators in geneva have proposed a radical cut in offensive forces by each side with no cheating they have made clear that soviet compliance with the letter and spirit of agreements is essential if the soviet government wants an agreement that truly reduces nuclear arms there will be such an agreement but arms control is no substitute for peace we know that peace follows in freedom path and conflicts erupt when the will of the people is denied so we must prepare for peace not only by reducing weapons but by bolstering prosperity liberty and democracy however and wherever we can we advance the promise of opportunity every time we speak out on behalf of lower tax rates freer markets sound currencies around the world we strengthen the family of freedom every time we work with allies and come to the aid of friends under siege and we can enlarge the family of free nations if we will defend the unalienable rights of all god children to follow their dreams to those imprisoned in regimes held captive to those beaten for daring to fight for freedom and their right to worship to speak to live and to prosper in the family of free say to you tonight you are not alone freedom fighters america will support with moral and material assistance your right not just to fight and die for freedom but to fight and win win freedom in afghanistan in angola in cambodia and in nicaragua this is a great moral challenge for the entire free world surely no issue is more important for peace in our own hemisphere for the security of our frontiers for the protection of our vital interests than to achieve democracy in nicaragua and to protect nicaragua democratic neighbors this year i will be asking congress for the means to do what must be done for that great and good because as former senator henry scoop jackson the inspiration for our bipartisan commission on central america once said in matters of national security the best politics is no politics what we accomplish this year in each challenge we face will set our course for the balance of the decade indeed for the remainder of the century after all we have done so far let no one say that this nation can not reach the destiny of our dreams america believes america is ready america can win the race to the we shall the american dream is a song of hope that rings through night winter air vivid tender music that warms our hearts when the least among us aspire to the greatest things to venture a daring enterprise to unearth new beauty in music literature and art to discover a new universe inside a tiny silicon chip or a single human cell we see the dream coming true in the spirit of discovery of richard cavoli all his life he is been enthralled by the mysteries of medicine and richard we know that the experiment that you began in high school was launched and lost last week yet your dream lives and as long as it is real work of noble note will yet be done work that could reduce the harmful effects of x rays on patients and enable astronomers to view the golden gateways of the farthest stars we see the dream glow in the towering talent of a tyrone ford a child prodigy of gospel music he has surmounted personal adversity to become an accomplished pianist and singer he also directs the choirs of three churches and has performed at the kennedy center with god as your composer tyrone your music will be the music of angels we see the dream being saved by the courage of the shelby butler honor student and member of her school safety patrol seeing another girl freeze in terror before an school bus she risked her life and pulled her to safety with bravery like yours shelby america need never fear for our future and we see the dream born again in the joyful compassion of a 13 year old trevor ferrell two years ago age 11 watching men and women bedding down in abandoned television he was left his suburban philadelphia home to bring blankets and food to the helpless and homeless and now 250 people help him fulfill his nightly vigil trevor yours is the living spirit of brotherly love would you four stand up for a moment thank you thank you you are heroes of our hearts we look at you and know it is true in this land of dreams fulfilled where greater dreams may be imagined nothing is impossible no victory is beyond our reach no glory will ever be too great so now it is up to us all of us to prepare america for that day when our work will pale before the greatness of america champions in the 21st century the world hopes rest with america future america hopes rest with us so let us go forward to create our world of tomorrow in faith in unity and in love god bless you and god bless america
speaker president distinguished members congress honored guests fellow citizens thank allowing delay address evening paused together mourn honor valor seven challenger heroes hope ready would want us go forward america reach stars never forget brave seven shall go forward speaker begin prepared remarks may point tonight marks 10th last state union message presided behalf american people want salute service congress country applause come review progress nation speak unfinished work set sights future pleased report state union stronger year ago growing stronger day tonight look rising america firm heart united spirit powerful pride patriotism america move long ago looked different land locked factory gates long gasoline lines intolerable prices interest rates turning greatest country earth land broken dreams government growing beyond consent become lumbering giant slamming shut gates opportunity threatening crush roots freedom brought america back american people brought us back quiet courage common sense undying faith nation god future future belongs free tonight american people deserve thanks 37 straight months economic growth sunrise firms modernized industries creating 9 million new jobs 3 years interest rates cut half inflation falling 12 percent 1980 4 today mighty river good record 74 billion voluntary giving last year alone despite pressures modern world family community remain moral core society guardians values hopes future family community costars great american comeback say tonight private values must heart public policies true families america true america family free nations history captive inevitable force history made men women vision courage tonight freedom march united states economic miracle model world turns stand idea whose time lifting weights shoulders people truly prosper peace among nations secure teddy roosevelt said nation great work lives forever done well stop foothills everest beckons time america speak tonight agenda future agenda safer secure world speak necessity actions steel us challenges growth trade security next decade year 2000 breaking faith bedrock principles breaking free failed policies let us begin storm clouds loom washington dc week send detailed proposals tonight let us speak responsibility redefine government role control demand command contain us help times need create ladder opportunity full employment americans climb toward economic power justice win race future shackled system even pass federal budget win race held back programs waste tax dollars squander human potential win race swamped sea red ink speaker know know american people know federal budget system broken work leave city let us work together fix finally give american people balanced budget members congress passage gives us historic opportunity achieve eluded national leadership decades forcing federal government live within means schedule requires budget resolution passed april 15th day america families foot bill budgets produce often read husband wife working struggling paycheck paycheck raise family meet mortgage pay taxes bills yet congress say taxes must raised well sorry asking wrong people tighten belts time reduce federal budget left family budget alone face large deficits american families undertaxed face deficits federal government overspends detailed budget submit meet target deficit reductions meet commitment ensure strong national defense meet commitment protect social security truly less fortunate yes meet commitment raise taxes accomplish well taking need families take care government must provide shelter nourishment provide must revise replace programs enacted name compassion degrade moral worth work encourage family breakups drive entire communities bleak heartless dependency mark dramatic improvement experience shows simply setting deficit targets assure met must proceed grace commission reforms waste tonight ask give 43 governors give veto year give authority veto waste take responsibility make cuts take heat authority would give monopoly power simply prevent spending measures sneaking could pass merit sustain override veto way system work made hard choices lock gains balanced budget amendment constitution mentioned meet commitment national defense must meet defense another budget expense keeping america strong free peace solely responsibility federal government government prime responsibility devoted 5 years trying narrow dangerous gap born illusion neglect made important gains yet threat soviet forces conventional strategic soviet drive domination increase espionage state terror remains great reality closing eyes make reality disappear pledged together hold real growth defense spending bare minimum budget honors pledge asking congress keep end bargain soviets must know america reduces defenses reduced threat reduced resolve keeping america strong vital national security controlling federal spending economic security said powerful force enlist federal deficit american economy unfettered free magic unfailing calling unites us believe tax rate cuts people done spur spirit help america economy break free program since john kennedy tax cut almost quarter century ago history calls us press complete efforts historic tax reform providing new opportunity ensuring pay fair share come far join walk last mile together know views accept tax reform tax increase disguise true reform must engine productivity growth means top personal rate higher 35 percent true reform must truly fair means raising personal exemptions true reform means tax system long last profamily projobs profuture knock barriers growth must redouble efforts freer fairer trade already taken actions counter unfair trading practices pry open closed foreign markets continue also oppose legislation touted providing protection reality pits one american worker another one industry another one community another raises prices us united states trade nations level playing field outproduce outcompete outsell anybody anywhere world constant expansion economy exports requires sound stable dollar home reliable exchange rates around world must never permit wild currency swings cripple farmers exporters farmers particular suffered past unwise government policies must abandoned problems create control begun coordinating economic monetary policy among major trading partners tonight directing treasury secretary jim baker determine nations world convene discuss role relationship currencies confident future secure values americans striving forward embrace future see recovery 3 straight years falling crime rates families communities band together fight pornography drugs lawlessness give back children safe yes innocent childhood deserve see renaissance education rising sat scores 3 year increase greatest since 1963 government washington lobbies turned education around american people reaching excellence knew reach back basics must continue advance supporting discipline schools vouchers give parents freedom choice must give back children lost right acknowledge god classrooms nation idealists yet today wound national conscience america never whole long right life granted creator denied unborn rest time shall see wound one day healed work make american dream real must also look condition america families struggling parents today worry provide children advantages parents gave welfare culture breakdown family basic support system reached crisis female child poverty child abandonment horrible crimes deteriorating schools hundreds billions dollars poverty programs plight poor grows painful waste dollars cents pales tragic loss sinful waste human spirit potential ignore terrible truth longer franklin roosevelt warned 51 years ago standing chamber said welfare narcotic subtle destroyer human spirit must escape spider web dependency tonight charging white house domestic council present december 1 1986 evaluation programs strategy immediate action meet financial educational social safety concerns poor families talking real lasting emancipation success welfare judged many recipients become independent welfare seeing devastating illness destroy financial security family directing secretary health human services otis bowen report year end recommendations private sector government work together address problems affordable insurance whose life savings would otherwise threatened catastrophic illness strikes tonight want speak directly america younger generation hold destiny nation hands temptations young people face sometimes seems allure permissive society requires superhuman feats call future strong challenge great get lost blind alleyways dissolution drugs despair never exciting time alive time rousing wonder heroic achievement said film back future going need roads well today physicists peering infinitely small realms subatomic particles find reaffirmations religious faith astronomers build space telescope see edge universe possibly back moment creation yes nation remains fully committed america space program going forward shuttle flights going forward build space station going forward research new orient express could end next decade take dulles airport accelerate 25 times speed sound attaining low earth orbit flying tokyo within 2 hours technology transforming lives solve greatest problem 20th century security shield one day render nuclear weapons obsolete free mankind prison nuclear terror america met one historic challenge went moon america must meet another make strategic defense real citizens planet earth let us speak deepest longing future leave children land free world peace hope fireside summit geneva gorbachev upcoming visit america lead stable relationship surely people earth hate war love peace americans stroll future childlike faith differences system openly proclaims practices alleged right command people lives export ideology force deep abiding logic history compel us accept relationship guided cleareyed steady sure negotiators geneva proposed radical cut offensive forces side cheating made clear soviet compliance letter spirit agreements essential soviet government wants agreement truly reduces nuclear arms agreement arms control substitute peace know peace follows freedom path conflicts erupt people denied must prepare peace reducing weapons bolstering prosperity liberty democracy however wherever advance promise opportunity every time speak behalf lower tax rates freer markets sound currencies around world strengthen family freedom every time work allies come aid friends siege enlarge family free nations defend unalienable rights god children follow dreams imprisoned regimes held captive beaten daring fight freedom right worship speak live prosper family free say tonight alone freedom fighters america support moral material assistance right fight die freedom fight win win freedom afghanistan angola cambodia nicaragua great moral challenge entire free world surely issue important peace hemisphere security frontiers protection vital interests achieve democracy nicaragua protect nicaragua democratic neighbors year asking congress means must done great good former senator henry scoop jackson inspiration bipartisan commission central america said matters national security best politics politics accomplish year challenge face set course balance decade indeed remainder century done far let one say nation reach destiny dreams america believes america ready america win race shall american dream song hope rings night winter air vivid tender music warms hearts least among us aspire greatest things venture daring enterprise unearth new beauty music literature art discover new universe inside tiny silicon chip single human cell see dream coming true spirit discovery richard cavoli life enthralled mysteries medicine richard know experiment began high school launched lost last week yet dream lives long real work noble note yet done work could reduce harmful effects x rays patients enable astronomers view golden gateways farthest stars see dream glow towering talent tyrone ford child prodigy gospel music surmounted personal adversity become accomplished pianist singer also directs choirs three churches performed kennedy center god composer tyrone music music angels see dream saved courage shelby butler honor student member school safety patrol seeing another girl freeze terror school bus risked life pulled safety bravery like shelby america need never fear future see dream born joyful compassion 13 year old trevor ferrell two years ago age 11 watching men women bedding abandoned television left suburban philadelphia home bring blankets food helpless homeless 250 people help fulfill nightly vigil trevor living spirit brotherly love would four stand moment thank thank heroes hearts look know true land dreams fulfilled greater dreams may imagined nothing impossible victory beyond reach glory ever great us us prepare america day work pale greatness america champions 21st century world hopes rest america future america hopes rest us let us go forward create world tomorrow faith unity love god bless god bless america
speaker president distinguish member congress honor guest fellow citizen thank allow delay address even pause together mourn honor valor seven challenger hero hope ready would want u go forward america reach star never forget brave seven shall go forward speaker begin prepare remark may point tonight mark 10th last state union message preside behalf american people want salute service congress country applause come review progress nation speak unfinished work set sight future pleased report state union strong year ago grow strong day tonight look rise america firm heart unite spirit powerful pride patriotism america move long ago look different land lock factory gate long gasoline line intolerable price interest rate turn great country earth land break dreams government grow beyond consent become lumber giant slam shut gate opportunity threaten crush root freedom bring america back american people bring u back quiet courage common sense undying faith nation god future future belongs free tonight american people deserve thanks 37 straight month economic growth sunrise firm modernize industry create 9 million new job 3 year interest rate cut half inflation fall 12 percent 1980 4 today mighty river good record 74 billion voluntary give last year alone despite pressure modern world family community remain moral core society guardian value hop future family community costars great american comeback say tonight private value must heart public policy true family america true america family free nation history captive inevitable force history make men woman vision courage tonight freedom march unite state economic miracle model world turn stand idea whose time lift weight shoulder people truly prosper peace among nation secure teddy roosevelt say nation great work live forever do well stop foothill everest beckons time america speak tonight agenda future agenda safer secure world speak necessity action steel u challenge growth trade security next decade year 2000 breaking faith bedrock principle break free failed policy let u begin storm cloud loom washington dc week send detail proposal tonight let u speak responsibility redefine government role control demand command contain u help time need create ladder opportunity full employment american climb toward economic power justice win race future shackle system even pass federal budget win race hold back program waste tax dollar squander human potential win race swamp sea red ink speaker know know american people know federal budget system broken work leave city let u work together fix finally give american people balance budget member congress passage give u historic opportunity achieve elude national leadership decade force federal government live within mean schedule require budget resolution pass april 15th day america family foot bill budget produce often read husband wife work struggle paycheck paycheck raise family meet mortgage pay tax bill yet congress say tax must raise well sorry ask wrong people tighten belts time reduce federal budget leave family budget alone face large deficit american family undertaxed face deficit federal government overspends detail budget submit meet target deficit reduction meet commitment ensure strong national defense meet commitment protect social security truly less fortunate yes meet commitment raise tax accomplish well take need family take care government must provide shelter nourishment provide must revise replace program enact name compassion degrade moral worth work encourage family breakup drive entire community bleak heartless dependency mark dramatic improvement experience show simply set deficit target assure meet must proceed grace commission reform waste tonight ask give 43 governor give veto year give authority veto waste take responsibility make cut take heat authority would give monopoly power simply prevent spending measure sneak could pass merit sustain override veto way system work make hard choice lock gain balance budget amendment constitution mention meet commitment national defense must meet defense another budget expense keep america strong free peace solely responsibility federal government government prime responsibility devote 5 year try narrow dangerous gap bear illusion neglect make important gain yet threat soviet force conventional strategic soviet drive domination increase espionage state terror remain great reality close eye make reality disappear pledge together hold real growth defense spending bare minimum budget honor pledge ask congress keep end bargain soviet must know america reduces defenses reduced threat reduce resolve keep america strong vital national security control federal spending economic security say powerful force enlist federal deficit american economy unfettered free magic unfailing call unites u believe tax rate cut people do spur spirit help america economy break free program since john kennedy tax cut almost quarter century ago history call u press complete effort historic tax reform provide new opportunity ensure pay fair share come far join walk last mile together know view accept tax reform tax increase disguise true reform must engine productivity growth mean top personal rate high 35 percent true reform must truly fair mean raise personal exemption true reform mean tax system long last profamily projobs profuture knock barrier growth must redouble effort freer fair trade already take action counter unfair trading practice pry open close foreign market continue also oppose legislation tout provide protection reality pit one american worker another one industry another one community another raise price u united state trade nation level play field outproduce outcompete outsell anybody anywhere world constant expansion economy export require sound stable dollar home reliable exchange rate around world must never permit wild currency swing cripple farmer exporter farmer particular suffer past unwise government policy must abandon problem create control begin coordinate economic monetary policy among major trade partner tonight direct treasury secretary jim baker determine nation world convene discuss role relationship currency confident future secure value americans strive forward embrace future see recovery 3 straight year fall crime rate family community band together fight pornography drug lawlessness give back child safe yes innocent childhood deserve see renaissance education rise sit score 3 year increase great since 1963 government washington lobby turn education around american people reach excellence know reach back basic must continue advance support discipline school voucher give parent freedom choice must give back child lose right acknowledge god classrooms nation idealist yet today wound national conscience america never whole long right life grant creator deny unborn rest time shall see wound one day heal work make american dream real must also look condition america family struggle parent today worry provide child advantage parent give welfare culture breakdown family basic support system reach crisis female child poverty child abandonment horrible crime deteriorate school hundred billion dollar poverty program plight poor grows painful waste dollar cent pale tragic loss sinful waste human spirit potential ignore terrible truth longer franklin roosevelt warn 51 year ago stand chamber say welfare narcotic subtle destroyer human spirit must escape spider web dependency tonight charge white house domestic council present december 1 1986 evaluation program strategy immediate action meet financial educational social safety concern poor family talk real lasting emancipation success welfare judge many recipient become independent welfare see devastate illness destroy financial security family direct secretary health human service otis bowen report year end recommendation private sector government work together address problem affordable insurance whose life saving would otherwise threaten catastrophic illness strike tonight want speak directly america young generation hold destiny nation hand temptation young people face sometimes seem allure permissive society require superhuman feat call future strong challenge great get lose blind alleyway dissolution drug despair never exciting time alive time rouse wonder heroic achievement say film back future go need road well today physicist peer infinitely small realm subatomic particle find reaffirmation religious faith astronomer build space telescope see edge universe possibly back moment creation yes nation remain fully commit america space program go forward shuttle flight go forward build space station go forward research new orient express could end next decade take dulles airport accelerate 25 time speed sound attain low earth orbit fly tokyo within 2 hour technology transform life solve great problem 20th century security shield one day render nuclear weapon obsolete free mankind prison nuclear terror america meet one historic challenge go moon america must meet another make strategic defense real citizen planet earth let u speak deep longing future leave child land free world peace hope fireside summit geneva gorbachev upcoming visit america lead stable relationship surely people earth hate war love peace american stroll future childlike faith difference system openly proclaim practice allege right command people live export ideology force deep abide logic history compel u accept relationship guide cleareyed steady sure negotiator geneva propose radical cut offensive force side cheat make clear soviet compliance letter spirit agreement essential soviet government want agreement truly reduce nuclear arm agreement arm control substitute peace know peace follow freedom path conflict erupt people deny must prepare peace reduce weapon bolster prosperity liberty democracy however wherever advance promise opportunity every time speak behalf lower tax rate freer market sound currency around world strengthen family freedom every time work ally come aid friend siege enlarge family free nation defend unalienable right god child follow dream imprison regime hold captive beaten dare fight freedom right worship speak live prosper family free say tonight alone freedom fighter america support moral material assistance right fight die freedom fight win win freedom afghanistan angola cambodia nicaragua great moral challenge entire free world surely issue important peace hemisphere security frontier protection vital interest achieve democracy nicaragua protect nicaragua democratic neighbor year ask congress mean must do great good former senator henry scoop jackson inspiration bipartisan commission central america say matter national security best politics politics accomplish year challenge face set course balance decade indeed remainder century do far let one say nation reach destiny dream america believe america ready america win race shall american dream song hope ring night winter air vivid tender music warms hearts least among u aspire great thing venture dare enterprise unearth new beauty music literature art discover new universe inside tiny silicon chip single human cell see dream come true spirit discovery richard cavoli life enthral mystery medicine richard know experiment begin high school launch lose last week yet dream life long real work noble note yet do work could reduce harmful effect x ray patient enable astronomer view golden gateway farthest star see dream glow tower talent tyrone ford child prodigy gospel music surmount personal adversity become accomplished pianist singer also direct choir three church perform kennedy center god composer tyrone music music angel see dream save courage shelby butler honor student member school safety patrol see another girl freeze terror school bus risk life pull safety bravery like shelby america need never fear future see dream bear joyful compassion 13 year old trevor ferrell two year ago age 11 watch men woman bed abandon television leave suburban philadelphia home bring blanket food helpless homeless 250 people help fulfill nightly vigil trevor live spirit brotherly love would four stand moment thank thank hero heart look know true land dream fulfil great dream may imagine nothing impossible victory beyond reach glory ever great u u prepare america day work pale greatness america champion 21st century world hop rest america future america hop rest u let u go forward create world tomorrow faith unity love god bless god bless america