Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our distinguished guests, my fellow Americans: As this 92d Congress begins its session, America has lost a great Senator, and all of us who had the privilege to know him have lost a loyal friend. I had the privilege of visiting Senator Russell in the hospital just a few days before he died. He never spoke about himself. He only spoke eloquently about the need for a strong national defense. In tribute to one of the most magnificent Americans of all time, I respectfully ask that all those here will rise in silent prayer for Senator Russell. [Moment of silence] Thank you. Mr. Speaker, before I begin my formal address, I want to use this opportunity to congratulate all of those who were winners in the rather spirited contest for leadership positions in the House and the Senate and, also, to express my condolences to the losers. I know how both of you feel. And I particularly want to join with all of the Members of the House and the Senate as well in congratulating the new Speaker of the United States Congress. To those new Members of this House who may have some doubts about the possibilities for advancement in the years ahead, I would remind you that the Speaker and I met just 24 years ago in this Chamber as freshmen Members of the 80th Congress. As you see, we both have come up in the world a bit since then. Mr. Speaker, this 92d Congress has a chance to be recorded as the greatest Congress in America's history. In these troubled years just past, America has been going through a long nightmare of war and division, of crime and inflation. Even more deeply, we have gone through a long, dark night of the American spirit. But now that night is ending. Now we must let our spirits soar again. Now we are ready for the lift of a driving dream. The people of this Nation are eager to get on with the quest for new greatness. They see challenges, and they are prepared to meet those challenges. It is for us here to open the doors that will set free again the real greatness of this Nation-the genius of the American people. How shall we meet this challenge? How can we truly open the doors, and set free the full genius of our people? The way in which the 92d Congress answers these questions will determine its place in history. More importantly, it can determine this Nation's place in history as we enter the third century of our independence. Tonight I shall present to the Congress six great goals. I shall ask not simply for more new programs in the old framework. I shall ask to change the framework of government itself---to reform the entire structure of American government so we can make it again fully responsive to the needs and the wishes of the American people. If we act boldly--if we seize this moment and achieve these goals--we can close the gap between promise and performance in American government. We can bring together the resources of this Nation and the spirit of the American people. In discussing these great goals, I shall deal tonight only with matters on the domestic side of the Nation's agenda. I shall make a separate report to the Congress and the Nation next month on developments in foreign policy. The first of these great goals is already before the Congress. I urge that the unfinished business of the 91st Congress be made the first priority business of the 92d Congress. Over the next 2 weeks, I will call upon Congress to take action on more than 35 pieces of proposed legislation on which action was not completed last year. The most important is welfare reform. The present welfare system has become a monstrous, consuming outrage--an outrage against the community, against the taxpayer, and particularly against the children it is supposed to help. We may honestly disagree, as we do, on what to do about it. But we can all agree that we must meet the challenge, not by pouring more money into a bad program, but by abolishing the present welfare system and adopting a new one. So let us place a floor under the income of every family with children in America-and without those demeaning, soul-stifling affronts to human dignity that so blight the lives of welfare children today. But let us also establish an effective work incentive and an effective work requirement. Let us provide the means by which more can help themselves. This shall be our goal. Let us generously help those who are not able to help themselves. But let us stop helping those who are able to help themselves but refuse to do so. The second great goal is to achieve what Americans have not enjoyed since 1957--full prosperity in peacetime. The tide of inflation has turned. The rise in the cost of living, which had been gathering dangerous momentum in the late sixties, was reduced last year. Inflation will be further reduced this year. But as we have moved from runaway inflation toward reasonable price stability and at the same time as we have been moving from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy, we have paid a price in increased unemployment. We should take no comfort from the fact that the level of unemployment in this transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy is lower than in any peacetime year of the sixties. This is not good enough for the man who is unemployed in the seventies. We must do better for workers in peacetime and we will do better. To achieve this, I will submit an expansionary budget this year--one that will help stimulate the economy and thereby open up new job opportunities for millions of Americans. It will be a full employment budget, a budget designed to be in balance if the economy were operating at its peak potential. By spending as if we were at full employment, we will help to bring about full employment. I ask the Congress to accept these expansionary policies--to accept the concept of a full employment budget. At the same time, I ask the Congress to cooperate in resisting expenditures that go beyond the limits of the full employment budget. For as we wage a campaign to bring about a widely shared prosperity, we must not reignite the fires of inflation and so undermine that prosperity. With the stimulus and the discipline of a full employment budget, with the commitment of the independent Federal Reserve System to provide fully for the monetary needs of a growing economy, and with a much greater effort on the part of labor and management to make their wage and price decisions in the light of the national interest and their own self-interest--then for the worker, the farmer, the consumer, for Americans everywhere we shall gain the goal of a new prosperity: more jobs, more income, more profits, without inflation and without war. This is a great goal, and one that we can achieve together. The third great goal is to continue the effort so dramatically begun last year: to restore and enhance our natural environment. Building on the foundation laid in the 37-point program that I submitted to Congress last year, I will propose a strong new set of initiatives to clean up our air and water, to combat noise, and to preserve and restore our surroundings. I will propose programs to make better use of our land, to encourage a balanced national growth--growth that will revitalize our rural heartland and enhance the quality of life in America. And not only to meet today's needs but to anticipate those of tomorrow, I will put forward the most extensive program ever proposed by a President of the United States to expand the Nation's parks, recreation areas, open spaces, in a way that truly brings parks to the people where the people are. For only if we leave a legacy of parks will the next generation have parks to enjoy. As a fourth great goal, I will offer a far-reaching set of proposals for improving America's health care and making it available more fairly to more people. I will propose: --A program to insure that no American family will be prevented from obtaining basic medical care by inability to pay. --I will propose a major increase in and redirection of aid to medical schools, to greatly increase the number of doctors and other health personnel. --Incentives to improve the delivery of health services, to get more medical care resources into those areas that have not been adequately served, to make greater use of medical assistants, and to slow the alarming rise in the costs of medical care. --New programs to encourage better preventive medicine, by attacking the causes of disease and injury, and by providing incentives to doctors to keep people well rather than just to treat them when they are sick. I will also ask for an appropriation of an extra $100 million to launch an intensive campaign to find a cure for cancer, and I will ask later for whatever additional funds can effectively be used. The time has come in America when the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread disease. Let us make a total national commitment to achieve this goal. America has long been the wealthiest nation in the world. Now it is time we became the healthiest nation in the world. The fifth great goal is to strengthen and to renew our State and local governments. As we approach our 200th anniversary in 1976, we remember that this Nation launched itself as a loose confederation of separate States, without a workable central government. At that time, the mark of its leaders' vision was that they quickly saw the need to balance the separate powers of the States with a government of central powers. And so they gave us a constitution of balanced powers, of unity with diversity-and so clear was their vision that it survives today as the oldest written constitution still in force in the world. For almost two centuries since--and dramatically in the 1930's--at those great turning points when the question has been between the States and the Federal Government, that question has been resolved in favor of a stronger central Federal Government. During this time the Nation grew and the Nation prospered. But one thing history tells us is that no great movement goes in the same direction forever. Nations change, they adapt, or they slowly die. The time has now come in America to reverse the flow of power and resources from the States and communities to Washington, and start power and resources flowing back from Washington to the States and communities and, more important, to the people all across America. The time has come for a new partnership between the Federal Government and the States and localities--a partnership in which we entrust the States and localities with a larger share of the Nation's responsibilities, and in which we share our Federal revenues with them so that they can meet those responsibilities. To achieve this goal, I propose to the Congress tonight that we enact a plan of revenue sharing historic in scope and bold in concept. All across America today, States and cities are confronted with a financial crisis. Some have already been cutting back on essential services---for example, just recently San Diego and Cleveland cut back on trash collections. Most are caught between the prospects of bankruptcy on the one hand and adding to an already crushing tax burden on the other. As one indication of the rising costs of local government, I discovered the other day that my home town of Whittier, California-which has a population of 67,000--has a larger budget for 1971 than the entire Federal budget was in 1791. Now the time has come to take a new direction, and once again to introduce a new and more creative balance to our approach to government. So let us put the money where the needs are. And let us put the power to spend it where the people are. I propose that the Congress make a $ 16 billion investment in renewing State and local government. Five billion dollars of this will be in new and unrestricted funds to be used as the States and localities see fit. The other $11 billion will be provided by allocating $1 billion of new funds and converting one-third of the money going to the present narrow-purpose aid programs into Federal revenue sharing funds for six broad purposes for urban development, rural development, education, transportation, job training, and law enforcement but with the States and localities making their own decisions on how it should be spent within each category. For the next fiscal year, this would increase total Federal aid to the States and localities more than 25 percent over the present level. The revenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress will include the safeguards against discrimination that accompany all other Federal funds allocated to the States. Neither the President nor the Congress nor the conscience of this Nation can permit money which comes from all the people to be used in a way which discriminates against some of the people. The Federal Government will still have a large and vital role to play in achieving our national progress. Established functions that are clearly and essentially Federal in nature will still be performed by the Federal Government. New functions that need to be sponsored or performed by the Federal Government--such as those I have urged tonight in welfare and health--will be added to the Federal agenda. Whenever it makes the best sense for us to act as a whole nation, the Federal Government should and will lead the way. But where States or local governments can better do what needs to be done, let us see that they have the resources to do it there. Under this plan, the Federal Government will provide the States and localities with more money and less interference--and by cutting down the interference the same amount of money will go a lot further. Let us share our resources. Let us share them to rescue the States and localities from the brink of financial crisis. Let us share them to give homeowners and wage earners a chance to escape from ever-higher property taxes and sales taxes. Let us share our resources for two other reasons as well. The first of these reasons has to do with government itself, and the second has to do with each of us, with the individual. Let's face it. Most Americans today are simply fed up with government at all levels. They will not--and they should not--continue to tolerate the gap between promise and performance in government. The fact is that we have made the Federal Government so strong it grows muscle-bound and the States and localities so weak they approach impotence. If we put more power in more places, we can make government more creative in more places. That way we multiply the number of people with the ability to make things happen--and we can open the way to a new burst of creative energy throughout America. The final reason I urge this historic shift is much more personal, for each and for every one of us. As everything seems to have grown bigger and more complex in America, as the forces that shape our lives seem to have grown more distant and more impersonal, a great feeling of frustration has crept across this land. Whether it is the workingman who feels neglected, the black man who feels oppressed, or the mother concerned about her children, there has been a growing feeling that "Things are in the saddle, and ride mankind." Millions of frustrated young Americans today are crying out--asking not what will government do for me, but what can I do, how can I contribute, how can I matter? And so let us answer them. Let us say to them and let us say to all Americans, "We hear you. We will give you a chance. We are going to give you a new chance to have more to say about the decisions that affect your future--a chance to participate in government--because we are going to provide more centers of power where what you do can make a difference that you can see and feel in your own life and the life of your whole community." The further away government is from people, the stronger government becomes and the weaker people become. And a nation with a strong government and a weak people is an empty shell. I reject the patronizing idea that government in Washington, D.C., is inevitably more wise, more honest, and more efficient than government at the local or State level. The honesty and efficiency of government depends on people. Government at all levels has good people and bad people. And the way to get more good people into government is to give them more opportunity to do good things. The idea that a bureaucratic elite in Washington knows best what is best for people everywhere and that you cannot trust local governments is really a contention that you cannot trust people to govern themselves. This notion is completely foreign to the American experience. Local government is the government closest to the people, it is most responsive to the individual person. It is people's government in a far more intimate way than the Government in Washington can ever be. People came to America because they wanted to determine their own future rather than to live in a country where others determined their future for them. What this change means is that once again in America we are placing our trust in people. I have faith in people. I trust the judgment of people. Let us give the people of America a chance, a bigger voice in deciding for themselves those questions that so greatly affect their lives. The sixth great goal is a complete reform of the Federal Government itself. Based on a long and intensive study with the aid of the best advice obtainable, I have concluded that a sweeping reorganization of the executive branch is needed if the Government is to keep up with the times and with the needs of the people. I propose, therefore, that we reduce the present 12 Cabinet Departments to eight. I propose that the Departments of State, Treasury, Defense, and Justice remain, but that all the other departments be consolidated into four: Human Resources, Community Development, Natural Resources, and Economic Development. Let us look at what these would be: --First, a department dealing with the concerns of people--as individuals, as members of a family--a department focused on human needs. --Second, a department concerned with the community--rural communities and urban communities--and with all that it takes to make a community function as a community. --Third, a department concerned with our physical environment, with the preservation and balanced use of those great natural resources on which our Nation depends. --And fourth, a department concerned with our prosperity--with our jobs, our businesses, and those many activities that keep our economy running smoothly and well. Under this plan, rather than dividing up our departments by narrow subjects, we would organize them around the great purposes of government. Rather than scattering responsibility by adding new levels of bureaucracy, we would focus and concentrate the responsibility for getting problems solved. With these four departments, when we have a problem we will know where to go--and the department will have the authority and the resources to do something about it. Over the years we have added departments and created agencies at the Federal level, each to serve a new constituency, to handle a particular task--and these have grown and multiplied in what has become a hopeless confusion of form and function. The time has come to match our structure to our purposes---to look with a fresh eye, to organize the Government by conscious, comprehensive design to meet the new needs of a new era. One hundred years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood on a battlefield and spoke of a "government of the people, by the people, for the people." Too often since then, we have become a nation of the Government, by the Government, for the Government. By enacting these reforms, we can renew that principle that Lincoln stated so simply and so well. By giving everyone's voice a chance to be heard, we will have government that truly is of the people. By creating more centers of meaningful power, more places where decisions that really count can be made, by giving more people a chance to do something, we can have government that truly is by the people. And by setting up a completely modern, functional system of government at the national level, we in Washington will at last be able to provide government that is truly for the people. I realize that what I am asking is that not only the executive branch in Washington but that even this Congress will have to change by giving up some of its power. Change is hard. But without change there can be no progress. And for each of us the question then becomes, not "Will change cause me inconvenience?" but "Will change bring progress for America?" Giving up power is hard. But I would urge all of you, as leaders of this country, to remember that the truly revered leaders in world history are those who gave power to people, and not those who took it away. As we consider these reforms we will be acting, not for the next 2 years or for the next 10 years, but for the next 100 years. So let us approach these six great goals with a sense not only of this moment in history but also of history itself. Let us act with the willingness to work together and the vision and the boldness and the courage of those great Americans who met in Philadelphia almost 190 years ago to write a constitution. Let us leave a heritage as they did--not just for our children but for millions yet unborn--of a nation where every American will have a chance not only to live in peace and to enjoy prosperity and opportunity but to participate in a system of government where he knows not only his votes but his ideas count--a system of government which will provide the means for America to reach heights of achievement undreamed of before. Those men who met at Philadelphia left a great heritage because they had a vision--not only of what the Nation was but of what it could become. As I think of that vision, I recall that America was founded as the land of the open door--as a haven for the oppressed, a land of opportunity, a place of refuge, of hope. When the first settlers opened the door of America three and a half centuries ago, they came to escape persecution and to find opportunity--and they left wide the door of welcome for others to follow. When the Thirteen Colonies declared their independence almost two centuries ago, they opened the door to a new vision of liberty and of human fulfillment--not just for an elite but for all. To the generations that followed, America's was the open door that beckoned millions from the old world to the new in search of a better life, a freer life, a fuller life, and in which, by their own decisions, they could shape their own destinies. For the black American, the Indian, the Mexican-American, and for those others in our land who have not had an equal chance, the Nation at last has begun to confront the need to press open the door of full and equal opportunity, and of human dignity. For all Americans, with these changes I have proposed tonight we can open the door to a new era of opportunity. We can open the door to full and effective participation in the decisions that affect their lives. We can open the door to a new partnership among governments at all levels, between those governments and the people themselves. And by so doing, we can open wide the doors of human fulfillment for millions of people here in America now and in the years to come. In the next few weeks I will spell out in greater detail the way I propose that we achieve these six great goals. I ask this Congress to be responsive. If it is, then the 92d Congress, your Congress, our Congress, at the end of its term, will be able to look back on a record more splendid than any in our history. This can be the Congress that helped us end the longest war in the Nation's history, and end it in a way that will give us at last a genuine chance to enjoy what we have not had in this century: a full generation of peace. This can be the Congress that helped achieve an expanding economy, with full employment and without inflation--and without the deadly stimulus of war. This can be the Congress that reformed a welfare system that has robbed recipients of their dignity and robbed States and cities of their resources. This can be the Congress that pressed forward the rescue of our environment, and established for the next generation an enduring legacy of parks for the people. This can be the Congress that launched a new era in American medicine, in which the quality of medical care was enhanced while the costs were made less burdensome. But above all, what this Congress can be remembered for is opening the way to a new American revolution--a peaceful revolution in which power was turned back to the people--in which government at all levels was refreshed and renewed and made truly responsive. This can be a revolution as profound, as far-reaching, as exciting as that first revolution almost 200 years ago--and it can mean that just 5 years from now America will enter its third century as a young nation new in spirit, with all the vigor and the freshness with which it began its first century. My colleagues in the Congress, these are great goals. They can make the sessions of this Congress a great moment for America. So let us pledge together to go forward together--by achieving these goals to give America the foundation today for a new greatness tomorrow and in all the years to come, and in so doing to make this the greatest Congress in the history of this great and good country.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our distinguished guests, my fellow Americans: As this 92d Congress begins its session, America has lost a great Senator, and all of us who had the privilege to know him have lost a loyal friend. I had the privilege of visiting Senator Russell in the hospital just a few days before he died. He never spoke about himself. He only spoke eloquently about the need for a strong national defense. In tribute to one of the most magnificent Americans of all time, I respectfully ask that all those here will rise in silent prayer for Senator Russell. [Moment of silence] Thank you. Mr. Speaker, before I begin my formal address, I want to use this opportunity to congratulate all of those who were winners in the rather spirited contest for leadership positions in the House and the Senate and, also, to express my condolences to the losers. I know how both of you feel. And I particularly want to join with all of the Members of the House and the Senate as well in congratulating the new Speaker of the United States Congress. To those new Members of this House who may have some doubts about the possibilities for advancement in the years ahead, I would remind you that the Speaker and I met just 24 years ago in this Chamber as freshmen Members of the 80th Congress. As you see, we both have come up in the world a bit since then. Mr. Speaker, this 92d Congress has a chance to be recorded as the greatest Congress in America's history. In these troubled years just past, America has been going through a long nightmare of war and division, of crime and inflation. Even more deeply, we have gone through a long, dark night of the American spirit. But now that night is ending. Now we must let our spirits soar again. Now we are ready for the lift of a driving dream. The people of this Nation are eager to get on with the quest for new greatness. They see challenges, and they are prepared to meet those challenges. It is for us here to open the doors that will set free again the real greatness of this Nation-the genius of the American people. How shall we meet this challenge? How can we truly open the doors, and set free the full genius of our people? The way in which the 92d Congress answers these questions will determine its place in history. More importantly, it can determine this Nation's place in history as we enter the third century of our independence. Tonight I shall present to the Congress six great goals. I shall ask not simply for more new programs in the old framework. I shall ask to change the framework of government itself---to reform the entire structure of American government so we can make it again fully responsive to the needs and the wishes of the American people. If we act boldly--if we seize this moment and achieve these goals--we can close the gap between promise and performance in American government. We can bring together the resources of this Nation and the spirit of the American people. In discussing these great goals, I shall deal tonight only with matters on the domestic side of the Nation's agenda. I shall make a separate report to the Congress and the Nation next month on developments in foreign policy. The first of these great goals is already before the Congress. I urge that the unfinished business of the 91st Congress be made the first priority business of the 92d Congress. Over the next 2 weeks, I will call upon Congress to take action on more than 35 pieces of proposed legislation on which action was not completed last year. The most important is welfare reform. The present welfare system has become a monstrous, consuming outrage--an outrage against the community, against the taxpayer, and particularly against the children it is supposed to help. We may honestly disagree, as we do, on what to do about it. But we can all agree that we must meet the challenge, not by pouring more money into a bad program, but by abolishing the present welfare system and adopting a new one. So let us place a floor under the income of every family with children in America-and without those demeaning, soul-stifling affronts to human dignity that so blight the lives of welfare children today. But let us also establish an effective work incentive and an effective work requirement. Let us provide the means by which more can help themselves. This shall be our goal. Let us generously help those who are not able to help themselves. But let us stop helping those who are able to help themselves but refuse to do so. The second great goal is to achieve what Americans have not enjoyed since 1957--full prosperity in peacetime. The tide of inflation has turned. The rise in the cost of living, which had been gathering dangerous momentum in the late sixties, was reduced last year. Inflation will be further reduced this year. But as we have moved from runaway inflation toward reasonable price stability and at the same time as we have been moving from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy, we have paid a price in increased unemployment. We should take no comfort from the fact that the level of unemployment in this transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy is lower than in any peacetime year of the sixties. This is not good enough for the man who is unemployed in the seventies. We must do better for workers in peacetime and we will do better. To achieve this, I will submit an expansionary budget this year--one that will help stimulate the economy and thereby open up new job opportunities for millions of Americans. It will be a full employment budget, a budget designed to be in balance if the economy were operating at its peak potential. By spending as if we were at full employment, we will help to bring about full employment. I ask the Congress to accept these expansionary policies--to accept the concept of a full employment budget. At the same time, I ask the Congress to cooperate in resisting expenditures that go beyond the limits of the full employment budget. For as we wage a campaign to bring about a widely shared prosperity, we must not reignite the fires of inflation and so undermine that prosperity. With the stimulus and the discipline of a full employment budget, with the commitment of the independent Federal Reserve System to provide fully for the monetary needs of a growing economy, and with a much greater effort on the part of labor and management to make their wage and price decisions in the light of the national interest and their own self-interest--then for the worker, the farmer, the consumer, for Americans everywhere we shall gain the goal of a new prosperity: more jobs, more income, more profits, without inflation and without war. This is a great goal, and one that we can achieve together. The third great goal is to continue the effort so dramatically begun last year: to restore and enhance our natural environment. Building on the foundation laid in the 37-point program that I submitted to Congress last year, I will propose a strong new set of initiatives to clean up our air and water, to combat noise, and to preserve and restore our surroundings. I will propose programs to make better use of our land, to encourage a balanced national growth--growth that will revitalize our rural heartland and enhance the quality of life in America. And not only to meet today's needs but to anticipate those of tomorrow, I will put forward the most extensive program ever proposed by a President of the United States to expand the Nation's parks, recreation areas, open spaces, in a way that truly brings parks to the people where the people are. For only if we leave a legacy of parks will the next generation have parks to enjoy. As a fourth great goal, I will offer a far-reaching set of proposals for improving America's health care and making it available more fairly to more people. I will propose: --A program to insure that no American family will be prevented from obtaining basic medical care by inability to pay. --I will propose a major increase in and redirection of aid to medical schools, to greatly increase the number of doctors and other health personnel. --Incentives to improve the delivery of health services, to get more medical care resources into those areas that have not been adequately served, to make greater use of medical assistants, and to slow the alarming rise in the costs of medical care. --New programs to encourage better preventive medicine, by attacking the causes of disease and injury, and by providing incentives to doctors to keep people well rather than just to treat them when they are sick. I will also ask for an appropriation of an extra $100 million to launch an intensive campaign to find a cure for cancer, and I will ask later for whatever additional funds can effectively be used. The time has come in America when the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread disease. Let us make a total national commitment to achieve this goal. America has long been the wealthiest nation in the world. Now it is time we became the healthiest nation in the world. The fifth great goal is to strengthen and to renew our State and local governments. As we approach our 200th anniversary in 1976, we remember that this Nation launched itself as a loose confederation of separate States, without a workable central government. At that time, the mark of its leaders' vision was that they quickly saw the need to balance the separate powers of the States with a government of central powers. And so they gave us a constitution of balanced powers, of unity with diversity-and so clear was their vision that it survives today as the oldest written constitution still in force in the world. For almost two centuries since--and dramatically in the 1930's--at those great turning points when the question has been between the States and the Federal Government, that question has been resolved in favor of a stronger central Federal Government. During this time the Nation grew and the Nation prospered. But one thing history tells us is that no great movement goes in the same direction forever. Nations change, they adapt, or they slowly die. The time has now come in America to reverse the flow of power and resources from the States and communities to Washington, and start power and resources flowing back from Washington to the States and communities and, more important, to the people all across America. The time has come for a new partnership between the Federal Government and the States and localities--a partnership in which we entrust the States and localities with a larger share of the Nation's responsibilities, and in which we share our Federal revenues with them so that they can meet those responsibilities. To achieve this goal, I propose to the Congress tonight that we enact a plan of revenue sharing historic in scope and bold in concept. All across America today, States and cities are confronted with a financial crisis. Some have already been cutting back on essential services---for example, just recently San Diego and Cleveland cut back on trash collections. Most are caught between the prospects of bankruptcy on the one hand and adding to an already crushing tax burden on the other. As one indication of the rising costs of local government, I discovered the other day that my home town of Whittier, California-which has a population of 67,000--has a larger budget for 1971 than the entire Federal budget was in 1791. Now the time has come to take a new direction, and once again to introduce a new and more creative balance to our approach to government. So let us put the money where the needs are. And let us put the power to spend it where the people are. I propose that the Congress make a $ 16 billion investment in renewing State and local government. Five billion dollars of this will be in new and unrestricted funds to be used as the States and localities see fit. The other $11 billion will be provided by allocating $1 billion of new funds and converting one-third of the money going to the present narrow-purpose aid programs into Federal revenue sharing funds for six broad purposes for urban development, rural development, education, transportation, job training, and law enforcement but with the States and localities making their own decisions on how it should be spent within each category. For the next fiscal year, this would increase total Federal aid to the States and localities more than 25 percent over the present level. The revenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress will include the safeguards against discrimination that accompany all other Federal funds allocated to the States. Neither the President nor the Congress nor the conscience of this Nation can permit money which comes from all the people to be used in a way which discriminates against some of the people. The Federal Government will still have a large and vital role to play in achieving our national progress. Established functions that are clearly and essentially Federal in nature will still be performed by the Federal Government. New functions that need to be sponsored or performed by the Federal Government--such as those I have urged tonight in welfare and health--will be added to the Federal agenda. Whenever it makes the best sense for us to act as a whole nation, the Federal Government should and will lead the way. But where States or local governments can better do what needs to be done, let us see that they have the resources to do it there. Under this plan, the Federal Government will provide the States and localities with more money and less interference--and by cutting down the interference the same amount of money will go a lot further. Let us share our resources. Let us share them to rescue the States and localities from the brink of financial crisis. Let us share them to give homeowners and wage earners a chance to escape from ever-higher property taxes and sales taxes. Let us share our resources for two other reasons as well. The first of these reasons has to do with government itself, and the second has to do with each of us, with the individual. Let us face it. Most Americans today are simply fed up with government at all levels. They will not--and they should not--continue to tolerate the gap between promise and performance in government. The fact is that we have made the Federal Government so strong it grows muscle-bound and the States and localities so weak they approach impotence. If we put more power in more places, we can make government more creative in more places. That way we multiply the number of people with the ability to make things happen--and we can open the way to a new burst of creative energy throughout America. The final reason I urge this historic shift is much more personal, for each and for every one of us. As everything seems to have grown bigger and more complex in America, as the forces that shape our lives seem to have grown more distant and more impersonal, a great feeling of frustration has crept across this land. Whether it is the workingman who feels neglected, the black man who feels oppressed, or the mother concerned about her children, there has been a growing feeling that "Things are in the saddle, and ride mankind." Millions of frustrated young Americans today are crying out--asking not what will government do for me, but what can I do, how can I contribute, how can I matter? And so let us answer them. Let us say to them and let us say to all Americans, "We hear you. We will give you a chance. We are going to give you a new chance to have more to say about the decisions that affect your future--a chance to participate in government--because we are going to provide more centers of power where what you do can make a difference that you can see and feel in your own life and the life of your whole community." The further away government is from people, the stronger government becomes and the weaker people become. And a nation with a strong government and a weak people is an empty she will. I reject the patronizing idea that government in Washington, D.C., is inevitably more wise, more honest, and more efficient than government at the local or State level. The honesty and efficiency of government depends on people. Government at all levels has good people and bad people. And the way to get more good people into government is to give them more opportunity to do good things. The idea that a bureaucratic elite in Washington knows best what is best for people everywhere and that you cannot trust local governments is really a contention that you cannot trust people to govern themselves. This notion is completely foreign to the American experience. Local government is the government closest to the people, it is most responsive to the individual person. It is people's government in a far more intimate way than the Government in Washington can ever be. People came to America because they wanted to determine their own future rather than to live in a country where others determined their future for them. What this change means is that once again in America we are placing our trust in people. I have faith in people. I trust the judgment of people. Let us give the people of America a chance, a bigger voice in deciding for themselves those questions that so greatly affect their lives. The sixth great goal is a complete reform of the Federal Government itself. Based on a long and intensive study with the aid of the best advice obtainable, I have concluded that a sweeping reorganization of the executive branch is needed if the Government is to keep up with the times and with the needs of the people. I propose, therefore, that we reduce the present 12 Cabinet Departments to eight. I propose that the Departments of State, Treasury, Defense, and Justice remain, but that all the other departments be consolidated into four: Human Resources, Community Development, Natural Resources, and Economic Development. Let us look at what these would be: --First, a department dealing with the concerns of people--as individuals, as members of a family--a department focused on human needs. --Second, a department concerned with the community--rural communities and urban communities--and with all that it takes to make a community function as a community. --Third, a department concerned with our physical environment, with the preservation and balanced use of those great natural resources on which our Nation depends. --And fourth, a department concerned with our prosperity--with our jobs, our businesses, and those many activities that keep our economy running smoothly and well. Under this plan, rather than dividing up our departments by narrow subjects, we would organize them around the great purposes of government. Rather than scattering responsibility by adding new levels of bureaucracy, we would focus and concentrate the responsibility for getting problems solved. With these four departments, when we have a problem we will know where to go--and the department will have the authority and the resources to do something about it. Over the years we have added departments and created agencies at the Federal level, each to serve a new constituency, to handle a particular task--and these have grown and multiplied in what has become a hopeless confusion of form and function. The time has come to match our structure to our purposes---to look with a fresh eye, to organize the Government by conscious, comprehensive design to meet the new needs of a new era. One hundred years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood on a battlefield and spoke of a "government of the people, by the people, for the people." Too often since then, we have become a nation of the Government, by the Government, for the Government. By enacting these reforms, we can renew that principle that Lincoln stated so simply and so well. By giving everyone is voice a chance to be heard, we will have government that truly is of the people. By creating more centers of meaningful power, more places where decisions that really count can be made, by giving more people a chance to do something, we can have government that truly is by the people. And by setting up a completely modern, functional system of government at the national level, we in Washington will at last be able to provide government that is truly for the people. I realize that what I am asking is that not only the executive branch in Washington but that even this Congress will have to change by giving up some of its power. Change is hard. But without change there can be no progress. And for each of us the question then becomes, not "Will change because me inconvenience?" but "Will change bring progress for America?" Giving up power is hard. But I would urge all of you, as leaders of this country, to remember that the truly revered leaders in world history are those who gave power to people, and not those who took it away. As we consider these reforms we will be acting, not for the next 2 years or for the next 10 years, but for the next 100 years. So let us approach these six great goals with a sense not only of this moment in history but also of history itself. Let us act with the willingness to work together and the vision and the boldness and the courage of those great Americans who met in Philadelphia almost 190 years ago to write a constitution. Let us leave a heritage as they did--not just for our children but for millions yet unborn--of a nation where every American will have a chance not only to live in peace and to enjoy prosperity and opportunity but to participate in a system of government where he knows not only his votes but his ideas count--a system of government which will provide the means for America to reach heights of achievement undreamed of before. Those men who met at Philadelphia left a great heritage because they had a vision--not only of what the Nation was but of what it could become. As I think of that vision, I recall that America was founded as the land of the open door--as a haven for the oppressed, a land of opportunity, a place of refuge, of hope. When the first settlers opened the door of America three and a half centuries ago, they came to escape persecution and to find opportunity--and they left wide the door of welcome for others to follow. When the Thirteen Colonies declared their independence almost two centuries ago, they opened the door to a new vision of liberty and of human fulfillment--not just for an elite but for all. To the generations that followed, America's was the open door that beckoned millions from the old world to the new in search of a better life, a freer life, a fuller life, and in which, by their own decisions, they could shape their own destinies. For the black American, the Indian, the Mexican-American, and for those others in our land who have not had an equal chance, the Nation at last has begun to confront the need to press open the door of full and equal opportunity, and of human dignity. For all Americans, with these changes I have proposed tonight we can open the door to a new era of opportunity. We can open the door to full and effective participation in the decisions that affect their lives. We can open the door to a new partnership among governments at all levels, between those governments and the people themselves. And by so doing, we can open wide the doors of human fulfillment for millions of people here in America now and in the years to come. In the next few weeks I will spell out in greater detail the way I propose that we achieve these six great goals. I ask this Congress to be responsive. If it is, then the 92d Congress, your Congress, our Congress, at the end of its term, will be able to look back on a record more splendid than any in our history. This can be the Congress that helped us end the longest war in the Nation's history, and end it in a way that will give us at last a genuine chance to enjoy what we have not had in this century: a full generation of peace. This can be the Congress that helped achieve an expanding economy, with full employment and without inflation--and without the deadly stimulus of war. This can be the Congress that reformed a welfare system that has robbed recipients of their dignity and robbed States and cities of their resources. This can be the Congress that pressed forward the rescue of our environment, and established for the next generation an enduring legacy of parks for the people. This can be the Congress that launched a new era in American medicine, in which the quality of medical care was enhanced while the costs were made less burdensome. But above all, what this Congress can be remembered for is opening the way to a new American revolution--a peaceful revolution in which power was turned back to the people--in which government at all levels was refreshed and renewed and made truly responsive. This can be a revolution as profound, as far-reaching, as exciting as that first revolution almost 200 years ago--and it can mean that just 5 years from now America will enter its third century as a young nation new in spirit, with all the vigor and the freshness with which it began its first century. My colleagues in the Congress, these are great goals. They can make the sessions of this Congress a great moment for America. So let us pledge together to go forward together--by achieving these goals to give America the foundation today for a new greatness tomorrow and in all the years to come, and in so doing to make this the greatest Congress in the history of this great and good country.
speaker president my colleagues in the congress our distinguished guests my fellow americans as this 92d congress begins its session america has lost a great senator and all of us who had the privilege to know him have lost a loyal friend i had the privilege of visiting senator russell in the hospital just a few days before he died he never spoke about himself he only spoke eloquently about the need for a strong national defense in tribute to one of the most magnificent americans of all time i respectfully ask that all those here will rise in silent prayer for senator russell moment of silence thank you speaker before i begin my formal address i want to use this opportunity to congratulate all of those who were winners in the rather spirited contest for leadership positions in the house and the senate and also to express my condolences to the losers i know how both of you feel and i particularly want to join with all of the members of the house and the senate as well in congratulating the new speaker of the united states congress to those new members of this house who may have some doubts about the possibilities for advancement in the years ahead i would remind you that the speaker and i met just 24 years ago in this chamber as freshmen members of the 80th congress as you see we both have come up in the world a bit since then speaker this 92d congress has a chance to be recorded as the greatest congress in america history in these troubled years just past america has been going through a long nightmare of war and division of crime and inflation even more deeply we have gone through a long dark night of the american spirit but now that night is ending now we must let our spirits soar again now we are ready for the lift of a driving dream the people of this nation are eager to get on with the quest for new greatness they see challenges and they are prepared to meet those challenges it is for us here to open the doors that will set free again the real greatness of this genius of the american people how shall we meet this challenge how can we truly open the doors and set free the full genius of our people the way in which the 92d congress answers these questions will determine its place in history more importantly it can determine this nation place in history as we enter the third century of our independence tonight i shall present to the congress six great goals i shall ask not simply for more new programs in the old framework i shall ask to change the framework of government itself reform the entire structure of american government so we can make it again fully responsive to the needs and the wishes of the american people if we act boldly if we seize this moment and achieve these goals we can close the gap between promise and performance in american government we can bring together the resources of this nation and the spirit of the american people in discussing these great goals i shall deal tonight only with matters on the domestic side of the nation agenda i shall make a separate report to the congress and the nation next month on developments in foreign policy the first of these great goals is already before the congress i urge that the unfinished business of the 91st congress be made the first priority business of the 92d congress over the next 2 weeks i will call upon congress to take action on more than 35 pieces of proposed legislation on which action was not completed last year the most important is welfare reform the present welfare system has become a monstrous consuming outrage an outrage against the community against the taxpayer and particularly against the children it is supposed to help we may honestly disagree as we do on what to do about it but we can all agree that we must meet the challenge not by pouring more money into a bad program but by abolishing the present welfare system and adopting a new one so let us place a floor under the income of every family with children in without those demeaning affronts to human dignity that so blight the lives of welfare children today but let us also establish an effective work incentive and an effective work requirement let us provide the means by which more can help themselves this shall be our goal let us generously help those who are not able to help themselves but let us stop helping those who are able to help themselves but refuse to do so the second great goal is to achieve what americans have not enjoyed since 1957 full prosperity in peacetime the tide of inflation has turned the rise in the cost of living which had been gathering dangerous momentum in the late sixties was reduced last year inflation will be further reduced this year but as we have moved from runaway inflation toward reasonable price stability and at the same time as we have been moving from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy we have paid a price in increased unemployment we should take no comfort from the fact that the level of unemployment in this transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy is lower than in any peacetime year of the sixties this is not good enough for the man who is unemployed in the seventies we must do better for workers in peacetime and we will do better to achieve this i will submit an expansionary budget this year one that will help stimulate the economy and thereby open up new job opportunities for millions of americans it will be a full employment budget a budget designed to be in balance if the economy were operating at its peak potential by spending as if we were at full employment we will help to bring about full employment i ask the congress to accept these expansionary policies to accept the concept of a full employment budget at the same time i ask the congress to cooperate in resisting expenditures that go beyond the limits of the full employment budget for as we wage a campaign to bring about a widely shared prosperity we must not reignite the fires of inflation and so undermine that prosperity with the stimulus and the discipline of a full employment budget with the commitment of the independent federal reserve system to provide fully for the monetary needs of a growing economy and with a much greater effort on the part of labor and management to make their wage and price decisions in the light of the national interest and their own then for the worker the farmer the consumer for americans everywhere we shall gain the goal of a new prosperity more jobs more income more profits without inflation and without war this is a great goal and one that we can achieve together the third great goal is to continue the effort so dramatically begun last year to restore and enhance our natural environment building on the foundation laid in the program that i submitted to congress last year i will propose a strong new set of initiatives to clean up our air and water to combat noise and to preserve and restore our surroundings i will propose programs to make better use of our land to encourage a balanced national growth growth that will revitalize our rural heartland and enhance the quality of life in america and not only to meet today needs but to anticipate those of tomorrow i will put forward the most extensive program ever proposed by a president of the united states to expand the nation parks recreation areas open spaces in a way that truly brings parks to the people where the people are for only if we leave a legacy of parks will the next generation have parks to enjoy as a fourth great goal i will offer a set of proposals for improving america health care and making it available more fairly to more people i will propose a program to insure that no american family will be prevented from obtaining basic medical care by inability to pay i will propose a major increase in and redirection of aid to medical schools to greatly increase the number of doctors and other health personnel incentives to improve the delivery of health services to get more medical care resources into those areas that have not been adequately served to make greater use of medical assistants and to slow the alarming rise in the costs of medical care new programs to encourage better preventive medicine by attacking the causes of disease and injury and by providing incentives to doctors to keep people well rather than just to treat them when they are sick i will also ask for an appropriation of an extra 100 million to launch an intensive campaign to find a cure for cancer and i will ask later for whatever additional funds can effectively be used the time has come in america when the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread disease let us make a total national commitment to achieve this goal america has long been the wealthiest nation in the world now it is time we became the healthiest nation in the world the fifth great goal is to strengthen and to renew our state and local governments as we approach our 200th anniversary in 1976 we remember that this nation launched itself as a loose confederation of separate states without a workable central government at that time the mark of its leaders vision was that they quickly saw the need to balance the separate powers of the states with a government of central powers and so they gave us a constitution of balanced powers of unity with so clear was their vision that it survives today as the oldest written constitution still in force in the world for almost two centuries since and dramatically in the 1930 at those great turning points when the question has been between the states and the federal government that question has been resolved in favor of a stronger central federal government during this time the nation grew and the nation prospered but one thing history tells us is that no great movement goes in the same direction forever nations change they adapt or they slowly die the time has now come in america to reverse the flow of power and resources from the states and communities to washington and start power and resources flowing back from washington to the states and communities and more important to the people all across america the time has come for a new partnership between the federal government and the states and localities a partnership in which we entrust the states and localities with a larger share of the nation responsibilities and in which we share our federal revenues with them so that they can meet those responsibilities to achieve this goal i propose to the congress tonight that we enact a plan of revenue sharing historic in scope and bold in concept all across america today states and cities are confronted with a financial crisis some have already been cutting back on essential services example just recently san diego and cleveland cut back on trash collections most are caught between the prospects of bankruptcy on the one hand and adding to an already crushing tax burden on the other as one indication of the rising costs of local government i discovered the other day that my home town of whittier has a population of has a larger budget for 1971 than the entire federal budget was in 1791 now the time has come to take a new direction and once again to introduce a new and more creative balance to our approach to government so let us put the money where the needs are and let us put the power to spend it where the people are i propose that the congress make a 16 billion investment in renewing state and local government five billion dollars of this will be in new and unrestricted funds to be used as the states and localities see fit the other 11 billion will be provided by allocating 1 billion of new funds and converting of the money going to the present aid programs into federal revenue sharing funds for six broad purposes for urban development rural development education transportation job training and law enforcement but with the states and localities making their own decisions on how it should be spent within each category for the next fiscal year this would increase total federal aid to the states and localities more than 25 percent over the present level the revenue sharing proposals i send to the congress will include the safeguards against discrimination that accompany all other federal funds allocated to the states neither the president nor the congress nor the conscience of this nation can permit money which comes from all the people to be used in a way which discriminates against some of the people the federal government will still have a large and vital role to play in achieving our national progress established functions that are clearly and essentially federal in nature will still be performed by the federal government new functions that need to be sponsored or performed by the federal government such as those i have urged tonight in welfare and health will be added to the federal agenda whenever it makes the best sense for us to act as a whole nation the federal government should and will lead the way but where states or local governments can better do what needs to be done let us see that they have the resources to do it there under this plan the federal government will provide the states and localities with more money and less interference and by cutting down the interference the same amount of money will go a lot further let us share our resources let us share them to rescue the states and localities from the brink of financial crisis let us share them to give homeowners and wage earners a chance to escape from property taxes and sales taxes let us share our resources for two other reasons as well the first of these reasons has to do with government itself and the second has to do with each of us with the individual let us face it most americans today are simply fed up with government at all levels they will not and they should not continue to tolerate the gap between promise and performance in government the fact is that we have made the federal government so strong it grows and the states and localities so weak they approach impotence if we put more power in more places we can make government more creative in more places that way we multiply the number of people with the ability to make things happen and we can open the way to a new burst of creative energy throughout america the final reason i urge this historic shift is much more personal for each and for every one of us as everything seems to have grown bigger and more complex in america as the forces that shape our lives seem to have grown more distant and more impersonal a great feeling of frustration has crept across this land whether it is the workingman who feels neglected the black man who feels oppressed or the mother concerned about her children there has been a growing feeling that things are in the saddle and ride mankind millions of frustrated young americans today are crying out asking not what will government do for me but what can i do how can i contribute how can i matter and so let us answer them let us say to them and let us say to all americans we hear you we will give you a chance we are going to give you a new chance to have more to say about the decisions that affect your future a chance to participate in government because we are going to provide more centers of power where what you do can make a difference that you can see and feel in your own life and the life of your whole community the further away government is from people the stronger government becomes and the weaker people become and a nation with a strong government and a weak people is an empty she will i reject the patronizing idea that government in washington is inevitably more wise more honest and more efficient than government at the local or state level the honesty and efficiency of government depends on people government at all levels has good people and bad people and the way to get more good people into government is to give them more opportunity to do good things the idea that a bureaucratic elite in washington knows best what is best for people everywhere and that you can not trust local governments is really a contention that you can not trust people to govern themselves this notion is completely foreign to the american experience local government is the government closest to the people it is most responsive to the individual person it is people government in a far more intimate way than the government in washington can ever be people came to america because they wanted to determine their own future rather than to live in a country where others determined their future for them what this change means is that once again in america we are placing our trust in people i have faith in people i trust the judgment of people let us give the people of america a chance a bigger voice in deciding for themselves those questions that so greatly affect their lives the sixth great goal is a complete reform of the federal government itself based on a long and intensive study with the aid of the best advice obtainable i have concluded that a sweeping reorganization of the executive branch is needed if the government is to keep up with the times and with the needs of the people i propose therefore that we reduce the present 12 cabinet departments to eight i propose that the departments of state treasury defense and justice remain but that all the other departments be consolidated into four human resources community development natural resources and economic development let us look at what these would be first a department dealing with the concerns of people as individuals as members of a family a department focused on human needs second a department concerned with the community rural communities and urban communities and with all that it takes to make a community function as a community third a department concerned with our physical environment with the preservation and balanced use of those great natural resources on which our nation depends and fourth a department concerned with our prosperity with our jobs our businesses and those many activities that keep our economy running smoothly and well under this plan rather than dividing up our departments by narrow subjects we would organize them around the great purposes of government rather than scattering responsibility by adding new levels of bureaucracy we would focus and concentrate the responsibility for getting problems solved with these four departments when we have a problem we will know where to go and the department will have the authority and the resources to do something about it over the years we have added departments and created agencies at the federal level each to serve a new constituency to handle a particular task and these have grown and multiplied in what has become a hopeless confusion of form and function the time has come to match our structure to our purposes look with a fresh eye to organize the government by conscious comprehensive design to meet the new needs of a new era one hundred years ago abraham lincoln stood on a battlefield and spoke of a government of the people by the people for the people too often since then we have become a nation of the government by the government for the government by enacting these reforms we can renew that principle that lincoln stated so simply and so well by giving everyone is voice a chance to be heard we will have government that truly is of the people by creating more centers of meaningful power more places where decisions that really count can be made by giving more people a chance to do something we can have government that truly is by the people and by setting up a completely modern functional system of government at the national level we in washington will at last be able to provide government that is truly for the people i realize that what i am asking is that not only the executive branch in washington but that even this congress will have to change by giving up some of its power change is hard but without change there can be no progress and for each of us the question then becomes not will change because me inconvenience but will change bring progress for america giving up power is hard but i would urge all of you as leaders of this country to remember that the truly revered leaders in world history are those who gave power to people and not those who took it away as we consider these reforms we will be acting not for the next 2 years or for the next 10 years but for the next 100 years so let us approach these six great goals with a sense not only of this moment in history but also of history itself let us act with the willingness to work together and the vision and the boldness and the courage of those great americans who met in philadelphia almost 190 years ago to write a constitution let us leave a heritage as they did not just for our children but for millions yet unborn of a nation where every american will have a chance not only to live in peace and to enjoy prosperity and opportunity but to participate in a system of government where he knows not only his votes but his ideas count a system of government which will provide the means for america to reach heights of achievement undreamed of before those men who met at philadelphia left a great heritage because they had a vision not only of what the nation was but of what it could become as i think of that vision i recall that america was founded as the land of the open door as a haven for the oppressed a land of opportunity a place of refuge of hope when the first settlers opened the door of america three and a half centuries ago they came to escape persecution and to find opportunity and they left wide the door of welcome for others to follow when the thirteen colonies declared their independence almost two centuries ago they opened the door to a new vision of liberty and of human fulfillment not just for an elite but for all to the generations that followed america was the open door that beckoned millions from the old world to the new in search of a better life a freer life a fuller life and in which by their own decisions they could shape their own destinies for the black american the indian the and for those others in our land who have not had an equal chance the nation at last has begun to confront the need to press open the door of full and equal opportunity and of human dignity for all americans with these changes i have proposed tonight we can open the door to a new era of opportunity we can open the door to full and effective participation in the decisions that affect their lives we can open the door to a new partnership among governments at all levels between those governments and the people themselves and by so doing we can open wide the doors of human fulfillment for millions of people here in america now and in the years to come in the next few weeks i will spell out in greater detail the way i propose that we achieve these six great goals i ask this congress to be responsive if it is then the 92d congress your congress our congress at the end of its term will be able to look back on a record more splendid than any in our history this can be the congress that helped us end the longest war in the nation history and end it in a way that will give us at last a genuine chance to enjoy what we have not had in this century a full generation of peace this can be the congress that helped achieve an expanding economy with full employment and without inflation and without the deadly stimulus of war this can be the congress that reformed a welfare system that has robbed recipients of their dignity and robbed states and cities of their resources this can be the congress that pressed forward the rescue of our environment and established for the next generation an enduring legacy of parks for the people this can be the congress that launched a new era in american medicine in which the quality of medical care was enhanced while the costs were made less burdensome but above all what this congress can be remembered for is opening the way to a new american revolution a peaceful revolution in which power was turned back to the people in which government at all levels was refreshed and renewed and made truly responsive this can be a revolution as profound as as exciting as that first revolution almost 200 years ago and it can mean that just 5 years from now america will enter its third century as a young nation new in spirit with all the vigor and the freshness with which it began its first century my colleagues in the congress these are great goals they can make the sessions of this congress a great moment for america so let us pledge together to go forward together by achieving these goals to give america the foundation today for a new greatness tomorrow and in all the years to come and in so doing to make this the greatest congress in the history of this great and good country
speaker president colleagues congress distinguished guests fellow americans 92d congress begins session america lost great senator us privilege know lost loyal friend privilege visiting senator russell hospital days died never spoke spoke eloquently need strong national defense tribute one magnificent americans time respectfully ask rise silent prayer senator russell moment silence thank speaker begin formal address want use opportunity congratulate winners rather spirited contest leadership positions house senate also express condolences losers know feel particularly want join members house senate well congratulating new speaker united states congress new members house may doubts possibilities advancement years ahead would remind speaker met 24 years ago chamber freshmen members 80th congress see come world bit since speaker 92d congress chance recorded greatest congress america history troubled years past america going long nightmare war division crime inflation even deeply gone long dark night american spirit night ending must let spirits soar ready lift driving dream people nation eager get quest new greatness see challenges prepared meet challenges us open doors set free real greatness genius american people shall meet challenge truly open doors set free full genius people way 92d congress answers questions determine place history importantly determine nation place history enter third century independence tonight shall present congress six great goals shall ask simply new programs old framework shall ask change framework government reform entire structure american government make fully responsive needs wishes american people act boldly seize moment achieve goals close gap promise performance american government bring together resources nation spirit american people discussing great goals shall deal tonight matters domestic side nation agenda shall make separate report congress nation next month developments foreign policy first great goals already congress urge unfinished business 91st congress made first priority business 92d congress next 2 weeks call upon congress take action 35 pieces proposed legislation action completed last year important welfare reform present welfare system become monstrous consuming outrage outrage community taxpayer particularly children supposed help may honestly disagree agree must meet challenge pouring money bad program abolishing present welfare system adopting new one let us place floor income every family children without demeaning affronts human dignity blight lives welfare children today let us also establish effective work incentive effective work requirement let us provide means help shall goal let us generously help able help let us stop helping able help refuse second great goal achieve americans enjoyed since 1957 full prosperity peacetime tide inflation turned rise cost living gathering dangerous momentum late sixties reduced last year inflation reduced year moved runaway inflation toward reasonable price stability time moving wartime economy peacetime economy paid price increased unemployment take comfort fact level unemployment transition wartime peacetime economy lower peacetime year sixties good enough man unemployed seventies must better workers peacetime better achieve submit expansionary budget year one help stimulate economy thereby open new job opportunities millions americans full employment budget budget designed balance economy operating peak potential spending full employment help bring full employment ask congress accept expansionary policies accept concept full employment budget time ask congress cooperate resisting expenditures go beyond limits full employment budget wage campaign bring widely shared prosperity must reignite fires inflation undermine prosperity stimulus discipline full employment budget commitment independent federal reserve system provide fully monetary needs growing economy much greater effort part labor management make wage price decisions light national interest worker farmer consumer americans everywhere shall gain goal new prosperity jobs income profits without inflation without war great goal one achieve together third great goal continue effort dramatically begun last year restore enhance natural environment building foundation laid program submitted congress last year propose strong new set initiatives clean air water combat noise preserve restore surroundings propose programs make better use land encourage balanced national growth growth revitalize rural heartland enhance quality life america meet today needs anticipate tomorrow put forward extensive program ever proposed president united states expand nation parks recreation areas open spaces way truly brings parks people people leave legacy parks next generation parks enjoy fourth great goal offer set proposals improving america health care making available fairly people propose program insure american family prevented obtaining basic medical care inability pay propose major increase redirection aid medical schools greatly increase number doctors health personnel incentives improve delivery health services get medical care resources areas adequately served make greater use medical assistants slow alarming rise costs medical care new programs encourage better preventive medicine attacking causes disease injury providing incentives doctors keep people well rather treat sick also ask appropriation extra 100 million launch intensive campaign find cure cancer ask later whatever additional funds effectively used time come america kind concentrated effort split atom took man moon turned toward conquering dread disease let us make total national commitment achieve goal america long wealthiest nation world time became healthiest nation world fifth great goal strengthen renew state local governments approach 200th anniversary 1976 remember nation launched loose confederation separate states without workable central government time mark leaders vision quickly saw need balance separate powers states government central powers gave us constitution balanced powers unity clear vision survives today oldest written constitution still force world almost two centuries since dramatically 1930 great turning points question states federal government question resolved favor stronger central federal government time nation grew nation prospered one thing history tells us great movement goes direction forever nations change adapt slowly die time come america reverse flow power resources states communities washington start power resources flowing back washington states communities important people across america time come new partnership federal government states localities partnership entrust states localities larger share nation responsibilities share federal revenues meet responsibilities achieve goal propose congress tonight enact plan revenue sharing historic scope bold concept across america today states cities confronted financial crisis already cutting back essential services example recently san diego cleveland cut back trash collections caught prospects bankruptcy one hand adding already crushing tax burden one indication rising costs local government discovered day home town whittier population larger budget 1971 entire federal budget 1791 time come take new direction introduce new creative balance approach government let us put money needs let us put power spend people propose congress make 16 billion investment renewing state local government five billion dollars new unrestricted funds used states localities see fit 11 billion provided allocating 1 billion new funds converting money going present aid programs federal revenue sharing funds six broad purposes urban development rural development education transportation job training law enforcement states localities making decisions spent within category next fiscal year would increase total federal aid states localities 25 percent present level revenue sharing proposals send congress include safeguards discrimination accompany federal funds allocated states neither president congress conscience nation permit money comes people used way discriminates people federal government still large vital role play achieving national progress established functions clearly essentially federal nature still performed federal government new functions need sponsored performed federal government urged tonight welfare health added federal agenda whenever makes best sense us act whole nation federal government lead way states local governments better needs done let us see resources plan federal government provide states localities money less interference cutting interference amount money go lot let us share resources let us share rescue states localities brink financial crisis let us share give homeowners wage earners chance escape property taxes sales taxes let us share resources two reasons well first reasons government second us individual let us face americans today simply fed government levels continue tolerate gap promise performance government fact made federal government strong grows states localities weak approach impotence put power places make government creative places way multiply number people ability make things happen open way new burst creative energy throughout america final reason urge historic shift much personal every one us everything seems grown bigger complex america forces shape lives seem grown distant impersonal great feeling frustration crept across land whether workingman feels neglected black man feels oppressed mother concerned children growing feeling things saddle ride mankind millions frustrated young americans today crying asking government contribute matter let us answer let us say let us say americans hear give chance going give new chance say decisions affect future chance participate government going provide centers power make difference see feel life life whole community away government people stronger government becomes weaker people become nation strong government weak people empty reject patronizing idea government washington inevitably wise honest efficient government local state level honesty efficiency government depends people government levels good people bad people way get good people government give opportunity good things idea bureaucratic elite washington knows best best people everywhere trust local governments really contention trust people govern notion completely foreign american experience local government government closest people responsive individual person people government far intimate way government washington ever people came america wanted determine future rather live country others determined future change means america placing trust people faith people trust judgment people let us give people america chance bigger voice deciding questions greatly affect lives sixth great goal complete reform federal government based long intensive study aid best advice obtainable concluded sweeping reorganization executive branch needed government keep times needs people propose therefore reduce present 12 cabinet departments eight propose departments state treasury defense justice remain departments consolidated four human resources community development natural resources economic development let us look would first department dealing concerns people individuals members family department focused human needs second department concerned community rural communities urban communities takes make community function community third department concerned physical environment preservation balanced use great natural resources nation depends fourth department concerned prosperity jobs businesses many activities keep economy running smoothly well plan rather dividing departments narrow subjects would organize around great purposes government rather scattering responsibility adding new levels bureaucracy would focus concentrate responsibility getting problems solved four departments problem know go department authority resources something years added departments created agencies federal level serve new constituency handle particular task grown multiplied become hopeless confusion form function time come match structure purposes look fresh eye organize government conscious comprehensive design meet new needs new era one hundred years ago abraham lincoln stood battlefield spoke government people people people often since become nation government government government enacting reforms renew principle lincoln stated simply well giving everyone voice chance heard government truly people creating centers meaningful power places decisions really count made giving people chance something government truly people setting completely modern functional system government national level washington last able provide government truly people realize asking executive branch washington even congress change giving power change hard without change progress us question becomes change inconvenience change bring progress america giving power hard would urge leaders country remember truly revered leaders world history gave power people took away consider reforms acting next 2 years next 10 years next 100 years let us approach six great goals sense moment history also history let us act willingness work together vision boldness courage great americans met philadelphia almost 190 years ago write constitution let us leave heritage children millions yet unborn nation every american chance live peace enjoy prosperity opportunity participate system government knows votes ideas count system government provide means america reach heights achievement undreamed men met philadelphia left great heritage vision nation could become think vision recall america founded land open door oppressed land opportunity place refuge hope first settlers opened door america three half centuries ago came escape persecution find opportunity left wide door welcome others follow thirteen colonies declared independence almost two centuries ago opened door new vision liberty human fulfillment elite generations followed america open door beckoned millions old world new search better life freer life fuller life decisions could shape destinies black american indian others land equal chance nation last begun confront need press open door full equal opportunity human dignity americans changes proposed tonight open door new era opportunity open door full effective participation decisions affect lives open door new partnership among governments levels governments people open wide doors human fulfillment millions people america years come next weeks spell greater detail way propose achieve six great goals ask congress responsive 92d congress congress congress end term able look back record splendid history congress helped us end longest war nation history end way give us last genuine chance enjoy century full generation peace congress helped achieve expanding economy full employment without inflation without deadly stimulus war congress reformed welfare system robbed recipients dignity robbed states cities resources congress pressed forward rescue environment established next generation enduring legacy parks people congress launched new era american medicine quality medical care enhanced costs made less burdensome congress remembered opening way new american revolution peaceful revolution power turned back people government levels refreshed renewed made truly responsive revolution profound exciting first revolution almost 200 years ago mean 5 years america enter third century young nation new spirit vigor freshness began first century colleagues congress great goals make sessions congress great moment america let us pledge together go forward together achieving goals give america foundation today new greatness tomorrow years come make greatest congress history great good country
speaker president colleague congress distinguished guest fellow american 92d congress begin session america lose great senator u privilege know lose loyal friend privilege visit senator russell hospital day die never speak speak eloquently need strong national defense tribute one magnificent american time respectfully ask rise silent prayer senator russell moment silence thank speaker begin formal address want use opportunity congratulate winner rather spirit contest leadership position house senate also express condolence loser know feel particularly want join member house senate well congratulate new speaker unite state congress new member house may doubt possibility advancement year ahead would remind speaker meet 24 year ago chamber freshman member 80th congress see come world bit since speaker 92d congress chance record great congress america history trouble year past america go long nightmare war division crime inflation even deeply go long dark night american spirit night end must let spirit soar ready lift drive dream people nation eager get quest new greatness see challenge prepare meet challenge u open door set free real greatness genius american people shall meet challenge truly open door set free full genius people way 92d congress answer question determine place history importantly determine nation place history enter third century independence tonight shall present congress six great goal shall ask simply new program old framework shall ask change framework government reform entire structure american government make fully responsive need wish american people act boldly seize moment achieve goal close gap promise performance american government bring together resource nation spirit american people discuss great goal shall deal tonight matter domestic side nation agenda shall make separate report congress nation next month development foreign policy first great goal already congress urge unfinished business 91st congress make first priority business 92d congress next 2 week call upon congress take action 35 piece propose legislation action complete last year important welfare reform present welfare system become monstrous consume outrage outrage community taxpayer particularly child suppose help may honestly disagree agree must meet challenge pour money bad program abolishing present welfare system adopt new one let u place floor income every family child without demean affront human dignity blight live welfare child today let u also establish effective work incentive effective work requirement let u provide mean help shall goal let u generously help able help let u stop help able help refuse second great goal achieve american enjoy since 1957 full prosperity peacetime tide inflation turn rise cost living gather dangerous momentum late sixty reduce last year inflation reduce year move runaway inflation toward reasonable price stability time move wartime economy peacetime economy pay price increase unemployment take comfort fact level unemployment transition wartime peacetime economy lower peacetime year sixty good enough man unemployed seventy must better worker peacetime good achieve submit expansionary budget year one help stimulate economy thereby open new job opportunity million american full employment budget budget design balance economy operate peak potential spending full employment help bring full employment ask congress accept expansionary policy accept concept full employment budget time ask congress cooperate resisting expenditure go beyond limit full employment budget wage campaign bring widely share prosperity must reignite fire inflation undermine prosperity stimulus discipline full employment budget commitment independent federal reserve system provide fully monetary need grow economy much great effort part labor management make wage price decision light national interest worker farmer consumer american everywhere shall gain goal new prosperity job income profit without inflation without war great goal one achieve together third great goal continue effort dramatically begin last year restore enhance natural environment building foundation lay program submit congress last year propose strong new set initiative clean air water combat noise preserve restore surroundings propose program make good use land encourage balance national growth growth revitalize rural heartland enhance quality life america meet today need anticipate tomorrow put forward extensive program ever propose president united state expand nation park recreation area open space way truly bring parks people people leave legacy park next generation park enjoy fourth great goal offer set proposal improve america health care make available fairly people propose program insure american family prevent obtain basic medical care inability pay propose major increase redirection aid medical school greatly increase number doctor health personnel incentive improve delivery health service get medical care resource area adequately serve make great use medical assistant slow alarm rise cost medical care new program encourage well preventive medicine attack cause disease injury provide incentive doctor keep people well rather treat sick also ask appropriation extra 100 million launch intensive campaign find cure cancer ask later whatever additional fund effectively use time come america kind concentrate effort split atom take man moon turn toward conquer dread disease let u make total national commitment achieve goal america long wealthy nation world time become healthy nation world fifth great goal strengthen renew state local government approach 200th anniversary 1976 remember nation launch loose confederation separate state without workable central government time mark leader vision quickly saw need balance separate power state government central power give u constitution balance power unity clear vision survives today oldest write constitution still force world almost two century since dramatically 1930 great turn point question state federal government question resolve favor strong central federal government time nation grow nation prosper one thing history tell u great movement go direction forever nation change adapt slowly die time come america reverse flow power resource state community washington start power resource flow back washington state community important people across america time come new partnership federal government state locality partnership entrust state locality large share nation responsibility share federal revenue meet responsibility achieve goal propose congress tonight enact plan revenue share historic scope bold concept across america today state city confront financial crisis already cut back essential service example recently san diego cleveland cut back trash collection catch prospect bankruptcy one hand add already crush tax burden one indication rise cost local government discover day home town whittier population large budget 1971 entire federal budget 1791 time come take new direction introduce new creative balance approach government let u put money need let u put power spend people propose congress make 16 billion investment renew state local government five billion dollar new unrestricted fund use state locality see fit 11 billion provide allocate 1 billion new fund convert money go present aid program federal revenue share fund six broad purpose urban development rural development education transportation job train law enforcement state locality make decision spend within category next fiscal year would increase total federal aid state localities 25 percent present level revenue share proposal send congress include safeguard discrimination accompany federal fund allocate state neither president congress conscience nation permit money come people used way discriminate people federal government still large vital role play achieve national progress establish function clearly essentially federal nature still perform federal government new function need sponsor performed federal government urge tonight welfare health add federal agenda whenever make best sense u act whole nation federal government lead way state local government well need do let u see resource plan federal government provide state localities money less interference cut interference amount money go lot let u share resource let u share rescue state locality brink financial crisis let u share give homeowner wage earner chance escape property tax sale tax let u share resource two reason well first reason government second u individual let u face american today simply fed government level continue tolerate gap promise performance government fact make federal government strong grows state locality weak approach impotence put power place make government creative place way multiply number people ability make thing happen open way new burst creative energy throughout america final reason urge historic shift much personal every one u everything seem grown big complex america force shape live seem grow distant impersonal great feel frustration crept across land whether workingman feel neglect black man feel oppress mother concerned child grow feeling thing saddle ride mankind million frustrate young american today cry ask government contribute matter let u answer let u say let u say american hear give chance go give new chance say decision affect future chance participate government go provide center power make difference see feel life life whole community away government people strong government become weak people become nation strong government weak people empty reject patronize idea government washington inevitably wise honest efficient government local state level honesty efficiency government depend people government level good people bad people way get good people government give opportunity good thing idea bureaucratic elite washington know best best people everywhere trust local government really contention trust people govern notion completely foreign american experience local government government close people responsive individual person people government far intimate way government washington ever people come america want determine future rather live country others determine future change mean america place trust people faith people trust judgment people let u give people america chance big voice decide question greatly affect life sixth great goal complete reform federal government base long intensive study aid best advice obtainable conclude sweeping reorganization executive branch need government keep time needs people propose therefore reduce present 12 cabinet department eight propose department state treasury defense justice remain department consolidate four human resource community development natural resource economic development let u look would first department deal concern people individual member family department focus human need second department concern community rural community urban community take make community function community third department concern physical environment preservation balance use great natural resource nation depend fourth department concern prosperity job business many activity keep economy run smoothly well plan rather divide department narrow subject would organize around great purposes government rather scatter responsibility add new level bureaucracy would focus concentrate responsibility get problem solve four department problem know go department authority resource something year add department create agency federal level serve new constituency handle particular task grow multiply become hopeless confusion form function time come match structure purpose look fresh eye organize government conscious comprehensive design meet new need new era one hundred year ago abraham lincoln stand battlefield spoke government people people people often since become nation government government government enact reform renew principle lincoln state simply well give everyone voice chance heard government truly people create center meaningful power place decision really count make give people chance something government truly people set completely modern functional system government national level washington last able provide government truly people realize ask executive branch washington even congress change give power change hard without change progress u question become change inconvenience change bring progress america give power hard would urge leader country remember truly revered leader world history give power people take away consider reform act next 2 year next 10 year next 100 year let u approach six great goal sense moment history also history let u act willingness work together vision boldness courage great american meet philadelphia almost 190 year ago write constitution let u leave heritage child million yet unborn nation every american chance live peace enjoy prosperity opportunity participate system government know vote idea count system government provide mean america reach height achievement undreamed men meet philadelphia leave great heritage vision nation could become think vision recall america found land open door oppress land opportunity place refuge hope first settler open door america three half century ago come escape persecution find opportunity leave wide door welcome others follow thirteen colony declare independence almost two century ago open door new vision liberty human fulfillment elite generation follow america open door beckon million old world new search well life free life fuller life decision could shape destiny black american indian others land equal chance nation last begin confront need press open door full equal opportunity human dignity american change propose tonight open door new era opportunity open door full effective participation decision affect live open door new partnership among government level government people open wide door human fulfillment million people america year come next week spell great detail way propose achieve six great goal ask congress responsive 92d congress congress congress end term able look back record splendid history congress help u end long war nation history end way give u last genuine chance enjoy century full generation peace congress help achieve expand economy full employment without inflation without deadly stimulus war congress reform welfare system rob recipient dignity rob state city resource congress press forward rescue environment establish next generation endure legacy park people congress launch new era american medicine quality medical care enhance cost make less burdensome congress remember open way new american revolution peaceful revolution power turn back people government level refresh renew make truly responsive revolution profound excite first revolution almost 200 year ago mean 5 year america enter third century young nation new spirit vigor freshness begin first century colleague congress great goal make session congress great moment america let u pledge together go forward together achieve goal give america foundation today new greatness tomorrow year come make great congress history great good country