[ As delivered in person before a joint session ] Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the House and Senate, my fellow Americans: I will be brief, for our time is necessarily short and our agenda is already long. Last year's congressional session was the longest in peacetime history. With that foundation, let us work together to make this year's session the best in the Nation's history. Let this session of Congress be known as the session which did more for civil rights than the last hundred sessions combined; as the session which enacted the most far-reaching tax cut of our time; as the session which declared all-out war on human poverty and unemployment in these United States; as the session which finally recognized the health needs of all our older citizens; as the session which reformed our tangled transportation and transit policies; as the session which achieved the most effective, efficient foreign aid program ever; and as the session which helped to build more homes, more schools, more libraries, and more hospitals than any single session of Congress in the history of our Republic. All this and more can and must be done. It can be done by this summer, and it can be done without any increase in spending. In fact, under the budget that I shall shortly submit, it can be done with an actual reduction in Federal expenditures and Federal employment. We have in 1964 a unique opportunity and obligation--to prove the success of our system; to disprove those cynics and critics at home and abroad who question our purpose and our competence. If we fail, if we fritter and fumble away our opportunity in needless, senseless quarrels between Democrats and Republicans, or between the House and the Senate, or between the South and North, or between the Congress and the administration, then history will rightfully judge us harshly. But if we succeed, if we can achieve these goals by forging in this country a greater sense of union, then, and only then, can we take full satisfaction in the State of the Union. II. Here in the Congress you can demonstrate effective legislative leadership by discharging the public business with clarity and dispatch, voting each important proposal up, or voting it down, but at least bringing it to a fair and a final vote. Let us carry forward the plans and programs of John Fitzgerald Kennedy--not because of our sorrow or sympathy, but because they are right. In his memory today, I especially ask all members of my own political faith, in this election year, to put your country ahead of your party, and to always debate principles; never debate personalities. For my part, I pledge a progressive administration which is efficient, and honest and frugal. The budget to be submitted to the Congress shortly is in full accord with this pledge. It will cut our deficit in half--from $10 billion to $4,900 million. It will be, in proportion to our national output, the smallest budget since 1951. It will call for a substantial reduction in Federal employment, a feat accomplished only once before in the last 10 years. While maintaining the full strength of our combat defenses, it will call for the lowest number of civilian personnel in the Department of Defense since 1950. It will call for total expenditures of $97,900 million--compared to $98,400 million for the current year, a reduction of more than $500 million. It will call for new obligational authority of $103,800 million--a reduction of more than $4 billion below last year's request of $107,900 million. But it is not a standstill budget, for America cannot afford to stand still. Our population is growing. Our economy is more complex. Our people's needs are expanding. But by closing down obsolete installations, by curtailing less urgent programs, by cutting back where cutting back seems to be wise, by insisting on a dollar's worth for a dollar spent, I am able to recommend in this reduced budget the most Federal support in history for education, for health, for retraining the unemployed, and for helping the economically and the physically handicapped. This budget, and this year's legislative program, are designed to help each and every American citizen fulfill his basic hopes--his hopes for a fair chance to make good; his hopes for fair play from the law; his hopes for a full-time job on full-time pay; his hopes for a decent home for his family in a decent community; his hopes for a good school for his children with good teachers; and his hopes for security when faced with sickness or unemployment or old age. III. Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope--some because of their poverty, and some because of their color, and all too many because of both. Our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity. This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America. I urge this Congress and all Americans to join with me in that effort. It will not be a short or easy struggle, no single weapon or strategy will suffice, but we shall not rest until that war is won. The richest Nation on earth can afford to win it. We cannot afford to lose it. One thousand dollars invested in salvaging an unemployable youth today can return $40,000 or more in his lifetime. Poverty is a national problem, requiring improved national organization and support. But this attack, to be effective, must also be organized at the State and the local level and must be supported and directed by State and local efforts. For the war against poverty will not be won here in Washington. It must be won in the field, in every private home, in every public office, from the courthouse to the White House. The program I shall propose will emphasize this cooperative approach to help that one-fifth of all American families with incomes too small to even meet their basic needs. Our chief weapons in a more pinpointed attack will be better schools, and better health, and better homes, and better training, and better job opportunities to help more Americans, especially young Americans, escape from squalor and misery and unemployment rolls where other citizens help to carry them. Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing, in a lack of decent communities in which to live and bring up their children. But whatever the cause, our joint Federal-local effort must pursue poverty, pursue it wherever it exists--in city slums and small towns, in sharecropper shacks or in migrant worker camps, on Indian Reservations, among whites as well as Negroes, among the young as well as the aged, in the boom towns and in the depressed areas. Our aim is not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it. No single piece of legislation, however, is going to suffice. We will launch a special effort in the chronically distressed areas of Appalachia. We must expand our small but our successful area redevelopment program. We must enact youth employment legislation to put jobless, aimless, hopeless youngsters to work on useful projects. We must distribute more food to the needy through a broader food stamp program. We must create a National Service Corps to help the economically handicapped of our own country as the Peace Corps now helps those abroad. We must modernize our unemployment insurance and establish a high-level commission on automation. If we have the brain power to invent these machines, we have the brain power to make certain that they are a boon and not a bane to humanity. We must extend the coverage of our minimum wage laws to more than 2 million workers now lacking this basic protection of purchasing power. We must, by including special school aid funds as part of our education program, improve the quality of teaching, training, and counseling in our hardest hit areas. We must build more libraries in every area and more hospitals and nursing homes under the Hill-Burton Act, and train more nurses to staff them. We must provide hospital insurance for our older citizens financed by every worker and his employer under Social Security, contributing no more than $1 a month during the employee's working career to protect him in his old age in a dignified manner without cost to the Treasury, against the devastating hardship of prolonged or repeated illness. We must, as a part of a revised housing and urban renewal program, give more help to those displaced by slum clearance, provide more housing for our poor and our elderly, and seek as our ultimate goal in our free enterprise system a decent home for every American family. We must help obtain more modern mass transit within our communities as well as low-cost transportation between them. Above all, we must release $11 billion of tax reduction into the private spending stream to create new jobs and new markets in every area of this land. IV. These programs are obviously not for the poor or the underprivileged alone. Every American will benefit by the extension of social security to cover the hospital costs of their aged parents. Every American community will benefit from the construction or modernization of schools, libraries, hospitals, and nursing homes, from the training of more nurses and from the improvement of urban renewal in public transit. And every individual American taxpayer and every corporate taxpayer will benefit from the earliest possible passage of the pending tax bill from both the new investment it will bring and the new jobs that it will create. That tax bill has been thoroughly discussed for a year. Now we need action. The new budget clearly allows it. Our taxpayers surely deserve it. Our economy strongly demands it. And every month of delay dilutes its benefits in 1964 for consumption, for investment, and for employment. For until the bill is signed, its investment incentives cannot be deemed certain, and the withholding rate cannot be reduced-and the most damaging and devastating thing you can do to any businessman in America is to keep him in doubt and to keep him guessing on what our tax policy is. And I say that we should now reduce to 14 percent instead of 15 percent our withholding rate. I therefore urge the Congress to take final action on this bill by the first of February, if at all possible. For however proud we may be of the unprecedented progress of our free enterprise economy over the last 3 years, we should not and we cannot permit it to pause. In 1963, for the first time in history, we crossed the 70 million job mark, but we will soon need more than 75 million jobs. In 1963 our gross national product reached the $600 billion level--$100 billion higher than when we took office. But it easily could and it should be still $30 billion higher today than it is. Wages and profits and family income are also at their highest levels in history--but I would remind you that 4 million workers and 13 percent of our industrial capacity are still idle today. We need a tax cut now to keep this country moving. V. For our goal is not merely to spread the work. Our goal is to create more jobs. I believe the enactment of a 35-hour week would sharply increase costs, would invite inflation, would impair our ability to compete, and merely share instead of creating employment. But I am equally opposed to the 45- or 50-hour week in those industries where consistently excessive use of overtime causes increased unemployment. So, therefore, I recommend legislation authorizing the creation of a tripartite industry committee to determine on an industry-by-industry basis as to where a higher penalty rate for overtime would increase job openings without unduly increasing costs, and authorizing the establishment of such higher rates. VI. Let me make one principle of this administration abundantly clear: All of these increased opportunities--in employment, in education, in housing, and in every field-must be open to Americans of every color. As far as the writ of Federal law will run, we must abolish not some, but all racial discrimination. For this is not merely an economic issue, or a social, political, or international issue. It is a moral issue, and it must be met by the passage this session of the bill now pending in the House. All members of the public should have equal access to facilities open to the public. All members of the public should be equally eligible for Federal benefits that are financed by the public. All members of the public should have an equal chance to vote for public officials and to send their children to good public schools and to contribute their talents to the public good. Today, Americans of all races stand side by side in Berlin and in Viet Nam. They died side by side in Korea. Surely they can work and eat and travel side by side in their own country. VII. We must also lift by legislation the bars of discrimination against those who seek entry into our country, particularly those who have much needed skills and those joining their families. In establishing preferences, a nation that was built by the immigrants of all lands can ask those who now seek admission: "What can you do for our country?" But we should not be asking: "In what country were you born?" VIII. For our ultimate goal is a world without war, a world made safe for diversity, in which all men, goods, and ideas can freely move across every border and every boundary. We must advance toward this goal in 1964 in at least 10 different ways, not as partisans, but as patriots. First, we must maintain--and our reduced defense budget will maintain--that margin of military safety and superiority obtained through 3 years of steadily increasing both the quality and the quantity of our strategic, our conventional, and our antiguerilla forces. In 1964 we will be better prepared than ever before to defend the cause of freedom, whether it is threatened by outright aggression or by the infiltration practiced by those in Hanoi and Havana, who ship arms and men across international borders to foment insurrection. And we must continue to use that strength as John Kennedy used it in the Cuban crisis and for the test ban treaty--to demonstrate both the futility of nuclear war and the possibilities of lasting peace. Second, we must take new steps--and we shall make new proposals at Geneva--toward the control and the eventual abolition of arms. Even in the absence of agreement, we must not stockpile arms beyond our needs or seek an excess of military power that could be provocative as well as wasteful. It is in this spirit that in this fiscal year we are cutting back our production of enriched uranium by 25 percent. We are shutting down four plutonium piles. We are closing many nonessential military installations. And it is in this spirit that we today call on our adversaries to do the same. Third, we must make increased use of our food as an instrument of peace--making it available by sale or trade or loan or donation-to hungry people in all nations which tell us of their needs and accept proper conditions of distribution. Fourth, we must assure our pre-eminence in the peaceful exploration of outer space, focusing on an expedition to the moon in this decade--in cooperation with other powers if possible, alone if necessary. Fifth, we must expand world trade. Having recognized in the Act of 1962 that we must buy as well as sell, we now expect our trading partners to recognize that we must sell as well as buy. We are willing to give them competitive access to our market, asking only that they do the same for us. Sixth, we must continue, through such measures as the interest equalization tax, as well as the cooperation of other nations, our recent progress toward balancing our international accounts. This administration must and will preserve the present gold value of the dollar. Seventh, we must become better neighbors with the free states of the Americas, working with the councils of the OAS, with a stronger Alliance for Progress, and with all the men and women of this hemisphere who really believe in liberty and justice for all. Eighth, we must strengthen the ability of free nations everywhere to develop their independence and raise their standard of living, and thereby frustrate those who prey on poverty and chaos. To do this, the rich must help the poor--and we must do our part. We must achieve a more rigorous administration of our development assistance, with larger roles for private investors, for other industrialized nations, and for international agencies and for the recipient nations themselves. Ninth, we must strengthen our Atlantic and Pacific partnerships, maintain our alliances and make the United Nations a more effective instrument for national independence and international order. Tenth, and finally, we must develop with our allies new means of bridging the gap between the East and the West, facing danger boldly wherever danger exists, but being equally bold in our search for new agreements which can enlarge the hopes of all, while violating the interests of none. In short, I would say to the Congress that we must be constantly prepared for the worst, and constantly acting for the best. We must be strong enough to win any war, and we must be wise enough to prevent one. We shall neither act as aggressors nor tolerate acts of aggression. We intend to bury no one, and we do not intend to be buried. We can fight, if we must, as we have fought before, but we pray that we will never have to fight again. IX. My good friends and my fellow Americans: In these last 7 sorrowful weeks, we have learned anew that nothing is so enduring as faith, and nothing is so degrading as hate. John Kennedy was a victim of hate, but he was also a great builder of faith--faith in our fellow Americans, whatever their creed or their color or their station in life; faith in the future of man, whatever his divisions and differences. This faith was echoed in all parts of the world. On every continent and in every land to which Mrs. Johnson and I traveled, we found faith and hope and love toward this land of America and toward our people. So I ask you now in the Congress and in the country to join with me in expressing and fulfilling that faith in working for a nation, a nation that is free from want and a world that is free from hate--a world of peace and justice, and freedom and abundance, for our time and for all time to come.
[ As delivered in person before a joint session ] Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the House and Senate, my fellow Americans: I will be brief, for our time is necessarily short and our agenda is already long. Last year's congressional session was the longest in peacetime history. With that foundation, let us work together to make this year's session the best in the Nation's history. Let this session of Congress be known as the session which did more for civil rights than the last hundred sessions combined; as the session which enacted the most far-reaching tax cut of our time; as the session which declared all-out war on human poverty and unemployment in these United States; as the session which finally recognized the health needs of all our older citizens; as the session which reformed our tangled transportation and transit policies; as the session which achieved the most effective, efficient foreign aid program ever; and as the session which helped to build more homes, more schools, more libraries, and more hospitals than any single session of Congress in the history of our Republic. All this and more can and must be done. It can be done by this summer, and it can be done without any increase in spending. In fact, under the budget that I shall shortly submit, it can be done with an actual reduction in Federal expenditures and Federal employment. We have in 1964 a unique opportunity and obligation--to prove the success of our system; to disprove those cynics and critics at home and abroad who question our purpose and our competence. If we fail, if we fritter and fumble away our opportunity in needless, senseless quarrels between Democrats and Republicans, or between the House and the Senate, or between the South and North, or between the Congress and the administration, then history will rightfully judge us harshly. But if we succeed, if we can achieve these goals by forging in this country a greater sense of union, then, and only then, can we take full satisfaction in the State of the Union. II. Here in the Congress you can demonstrate effective legislative leadership by discharging the public business with clarity and dispatch, voting each important proposal up, or voting it down, but at least bringing it to a fair and a final vote. Let us carry forward the plans and programs of John Fitzgerald Kennedy--not because of our sorrow or sympathy, but because they are right. In his memory today, I especially ask all members of my own political faith, in this election year, to put your country ahead of your party, and to always debate principles; never debate personalities. For my part, I pledge a progressive administration which is efficient, and honest and frugal. The budget to be submitted to the Congress shortly is in full accord with this pledge. It will cut our deficit in half--from $10 billion to $4,900 million. It will be, in proportion to our national output, the smallest budget since 1951. It will call for a substantial reduction in Federal employment, a feat accomplished only once before in the last 10 years. While maintaining the full strength of our combat defenses, it will call for the lowest number of civilian personnel in the Department of Defense since 1950. It will call for total expenditures of $97,900 million--compared to $98,400 million for the current year, a reduction of more than $500 million. It will call for new obligational authority of $103,800 million--a reduction of more than $4 billion below last year's request of $107,900 million. But it is not a standstill budget, for America cannot afford to stand still. Our population is growing. Our economy is more complex. Our people's needs are expanding. But by closing down obsolete installations, by curtailing less urgent programs, by cutting back where cutting back seems to be wise, by insisting on a dollar's worth for a dollar spent, I am able to recommend in this reduced budget the most Federal support in history for education, for health, for retraining the unemployed, and for helping the economically and the physically handicapped. This budget, and this year's legislative program, are designed to help each and every American citizen fulfill his basic hopes--his hopes for a fair chance to make good; his hopes for fair play from the law; his hopes for a full-time job on full-time pay; his hopes for a decent home for his family in a decent community; his hopes for a good school for his children with good teachers; and his hopes for security when faced with sickness or unemployment or old age. III. Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope--some because of their poverty, and some because of their color, and all too many because of both. Our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity. This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America. I urge this Congress and all Americans to join with me in that effort. It will not be a short or easy struggle, no single weapon or strategy will suffice, but we shall not rest until that war is won. The richest Nation on earth can afford to win it. We cannot afford to lose it. One thousand dollars invested in salvaging an unemployable youth today can return $40,000 or more in his lifetime. Poverty is a national problem, requiring improved national organization and support. But this attack, to be effective, must also be organized at the State and the local level and must be supported and directed by State and local efforts. For the war against poverty will not be won here in Washington. It must be won in the field, in every private home, in every public office, from the courthouse to the White House. The program I shall propose will emphasize this cooperative approach to help that one-fifth of all American families with incomes too small to even meet their basic needs. Our chief weapons in a more pinpointed attack will be better schools, and better health, and better homes, and better training, and better job opportunities to help more Americans, especially young Americans, escape from squalor and misery and unemployment rolls where other citizens help to carry them. Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the because of poverty, but the symptom. The because may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing, in a lack of decent communities in which to live and bring up their children. But whatever the because, our joint Federal-local effort must pursue poverty, pursue it wherever it exists--in city slums and small towns, in sharecropper shacks or in migrant worker camps, on Indian Reservations, among whites as well as Negroes, among the young as well as the aged, in the boom towns and in the depressed areas. Our aim is not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it. No single piece of legislation, however, is going to suffice. We will launch a special effort in the chronically distressed areas of Appalachia. We must expand our small but our successful area redevelopment program. We must enact youth employment legislation to put jobless, aimless, hopeless youngsters to work on useful projects. We must distribute more food to the needy through a broader food stamp program. We must create a National Service Corps to help the economically handicapped of our own country as the Peace Corps now helps those abroad. We must modernize our unemployment insurance and establish a high-level commission on automation. If we have the brain power to invent these machines, we have the brain power to make certain that they are a boon and not a bane to humanity. We must extend the coverage of our minimum wage laws to more than 2 million workers now lacking this basic protection of purchasing power. We must, by including special school aid funds as part of our education program, improve the quality of teaching, training, and counseling in our hardest hit areas. We must build more libraries in every area and more hospitals and nursing homes under the Hill-Burton Act, and train more nurses to staff them. We must provide hospital insurance for our older citizens financed by every worker and his employer under Social Security, contributing no more than $1 a month during the employee's working career to protect him in his old age in a dignified manner without cost to the Treasury, against the devastating hardship of prolonged or repeated illness. We must, as a part of a revised housing and urban renewal program, give more help to those displaced by slum clearance, provide more housing for our poor and our elderly, and seek as our ultimate goal in our free enterprise system a decent home for every American family. We must help obtain more modern mass transit within our communities as well as low-cost transportation between them. Above all, we must release $11 billion of tax reduction into the private spending stream to create new jobs and new markets in every area of this land. IV. These programs are obviously not for the poor or the underprivileged alone. Every American will benefit by the extension of social security to cover the hospital costs of their aged parents. Every American community will benefit from the construction or modernization of schools, libraries, hospitals, and nursing homes, from the training of more nurses and from the improvement of urban renewal in public transit. And every individual American taxpayer and every corporate taxpayer will benefit from the earliest possible passage of the pending tax bill from both the new investment it will bring and the new jobs that it will create. That tax bill has been thoroughly discussed for a year. Now we need action. The new budget clearly allows it. Our taxpayers surely deserve it. Our economy strongly demands it. And every month of delay dilutes its benefits in 1964 for consumption, for investment, and for employment. For until the bill is signed, its investment incentives cannot be deemed certain, and the withholding rate cannot be reduced-and the most damaging and devastating thing you can do to any businessman in America is to keep him in doubt and to keep him guessing on what our tax policy is. And I say that we should now reduce to 14 percent instead of 15 percent our withholding rate. I therefore urge the Congress to take final action on this bill by the first of February, if at all possible. For however proud we may be of the unprecedented progress of our free enterprise economy over the last 3 years, we should not and we cannot permit it to pause. In 1963, for the first time in history, we crossed the 70 million job mark, but we will soon need more than 75 million jobs. In 1963 our gross national product reached the $600 billion level--$100 billion higher than when we took office. But it easily could and it should be still $30 billion higher today than it is. Wages and profits and family income are also at their highest levels in history--but I would remind you that 4 million workers and 13 percent of our industrial capacity are still idle today. We need a tax cut now to keep this country moving. V. For our goal is not merely to spread the work. Our goal is to create more jobs. I believe the enactment of a 35-hour week would sharply increase costs, would invite inflation, would impair our ability to compete, and merely share instead of creating employment. But I am equally opposed to the 45- or 50-hour week in those industries where consistently excessive use of overtime causes increased unemployment. So, therefore, I recommend legislation authorizing the creation of a tripartite industry committee to determine on an industry-by-industry basis as to where a higher penalty rate for overtime would increase job openings without unduly increasing costs, and authorizing the establishment of such higher rates. VI. Let me make one principle of this administration abundantly clear: All of these increased opportunities--in employment, in education, in housing, and in every field-must be open to Americans of every color. As far as the writ of Federal law will run, we must abolish not some, but all racial discrimination. For this is not merely an economic issue, or a social, political, or international issue. It is a moral issue, and it must be met by the passage this session of the bill now pending in the House. All members of the public should have equal access to facilities open to the public. All members of the public should be equally eligible for Federal benefits that are financed by the public. All members of the public should have an equal chance to vote for public officials and to send their children to good public schools and to contribute their talents to the public good. Today, Americans of all races stand side by side in Berlin and in Viet Nam. They died side by side in Korea. Surely they can work and eat and travel side by side in their own country. VII. We must also lift by legislation the bars of discrimination against those who seek entry into our country, particularly those who have much needed skills and those joining their families. In establishing preferences, a nation that was built by the immigrants of all lands can ask those who now seek admission: "What can you do for our country?" But we should not be asking: "In what country were you born?" VIII. For our ultimate goal is a world without war, a world made safe for diversity, in which all men, goods, and ideas can freely move across every border and every boundary. We must advance toward this goal in 1964 in at least 10 different ways, not as partisans, but as patriots. First, we must maintain--and our reduced defense budget will maintain--that margin of military safety and superiority obtained through 3 years of steadily increasing both the quality and the quantity of our strategic, our conventional, and our antiguerilla forces. In 1964 we will be better prepared than ever before to defend the because of freedom, whether it is threatened by outright aggression or by the infiltration practiced by those in Hanoi and Havana, who ship arms and men across international borders to foment insurrection. And we must continue to use that strength as John Kennedy used it in the Cuban crisis and for the test ban treaty--to demonstrate both the futility of nuclear war and the possibilities of lasting peace. Second, we must take new steps--and we shall make new proposals at Geneva--toward the control and the eventual abolition of arms. Even in the absence of agreement, we must not stockpile arms beyond our needs or seek an excess of military power that could be provocative as well as wasteful. It is in this spirit that in this fiscal year we are cutting back our production of enriched uranium by 25 percent. We are shutting down four plutonium piles. We are closing many nonessential military installations. And it is in this spirit that we today call on our adversaries to do the same. Third, we must make increased use of our food as an instrument of peace--making it available by sale or trade or loan or donation-to hungry people in all nations which tell us of their needs and accept proper conditions of distribution. Fourth, we must assure our pre-eminence in the peaceful exploration of outer space, focusing on an expedition to the moon in this decade--in cooperation with other powers if possible, alone if necessary. Fifth, we must expand world trade. Having recognized in the Act of 1962 that we must buy as well as sell, we now expect our trading partners to recognize that we must sell as well as buy. We are willing to give them competitive access to our market, asking only that they do the same for us. Sixth, we must continue, through such measures as the interest equalization tax, as well as the cooperation of other nations, our recent progress toward balancing our international accounts. This administration must and will preserve the present gold value of the dollar. Seventh, we must become better neighbors with the free states of the Americas, working with the councils of the OAS, with a stronger Alliance for Progress, and with all the men and women of this hemisphere who really believe in liberty and justice for all. Eighth, we must strengthen the ability of free nations everywhere to develop their independence and raise their standard of living, and thereby frustrate those who prey on poverty and chaos. To do this, the rich must help the poor--and we must do our part. We must achieve a more rigorous administration of our development assistance, with larger roles for private investors, for other industrialized nations, and for international agencies and for the recipient nations themselves. Ninth, we must strengthen our Atlantic and Pacific partnerships, maintain our alliances and make the United Nations a more effective instrument for national independence and international order. Tenth, and finally, we must develop with our allies new means of bridging the gap between the East and the West, facing danger boldly wherever danger exists, but being equally bold in our search for new agreements which can enlarge the hopes of all, while violating the interests of none. In short, I would say to the Congress that we must be constantly prepared for the worst, and constantly acting for the best. We must be strong enough to win any war, and we must be wise enough to prevent one. We shall neither act as aggressors nor tolerate acts of aggression. We intend to bury no one, and we do not intend to be buried. We can fight, if we must, as we have fought before, but we pray that we will never have to fight again. IX. My good friends and my fellow Americans: In these last 7 sorrowful weeks, we have learned anew that nothing is so enduring as faith, and nothing is so degrading as hate. John Kennedy was a victim of hate, but he was also a great builder of faith--faith in our fellow Americans, whatever their creed or their color or their station in life; faith in the future of man, whatever his divisions and differences. This faith was echoed in all parts of the world. On every continent and in every land to which Mrs. Johnson and I traveled, we found faith and hope and love toward this land of America and toward our people. So I ask you now in the Congress and in the country to join with me in expressing and fulfilling that faith in working for a nation, a nation that is free from want and a world that is free from hate--a world of peace and justice, and freedom and abundance, for our time and for all time to come.
as delivered in person before a joint session speaker president members of the house and senate my fellow americans i will be brief for our time is necessarily short and our agenda is already long last year congressional session was the longest in peacetime history with that foundation let us work together to make this year session the best in the nation history let this session of congress be known as the session which did more for civil rights than the last hundred sessions combined as the session which enacted the most tax cut of our time as the session which declared war on human poverty and unemployment in these united states as the session which finally recognized the health needs of all our older citizens as the session which reformed our tangled transportation and transit policies as the session which achieved the most effective efficient foreign aid program ever and as the session which helped to build more homes more schools more libraries and more hospitals than any single session of congress in the history of our republic all this and more can and must be done it can be done by this summer and it can be done without any increase in spending in fact under the budget that i shall shortly submit it can be done with an actual reduction in federal expenditures and federal employment we have in 1964 a unique opportunity and obligation to prove the success of our system to disprove those cynics and critics at home and abroad who question our purpose and our competence if we fail if we fritter and fumble away our opportunity in needless senseless quarrels between democrats and republicans or between the house and the senate or between the south and north or between the congress and the administration then history will rightfully judge us harshly but if we succeed if we can achieve these goals by forging in this country a greater sense of union then and only then can we take full satisfaction in the state of the union ii here in the congress you can demonstrate effective legislative leadership by discharging the public business with clarity and dispatch voting each important proposal up or voting it down but at least bringing it to a fair and a final vote let us carry forward the plans and programs of john fitzgerald kennedy not because of our sorrow or sympathy but because they are right in his memory today i especially ask all members of my own political faith in this election year to put your country ahead of your party and to always debate principles never debate personalities for my part i pledge a progressive administration which is efficient and honest and frugal the budget to be submitted to the congress shortly is in full accord with this pledge it will cut our deficit in half from 10 billion to million it will be in proportion to our national output the smallest budget since 1951 it will call for a substantial reduction in federal employment a feat accomplished only once before in the last 10 years while maintaining the full strength of our combat defenses it will call for the lowest number of civilian personnel in the department of defense since 1950 it will call for total expenditures of million compared to million for the current year a reduction of more than 500 million it will call for new obligational authority of million a reduction of more than 4 billion below last year request of million but it is not a standstill budget for america can not afford to stand still our population is growing our economy is more complex our people needs are expanding but by closing down obsolete installations by curtailing less urgent programs by cutting back where cutting back seems to be wise by insisting on a dollar worth for a dollar spent i am able to recommend in this reduced budget the most federal support in history for education for health for retraining the unemployed and for helping the economically and the physically handicapped this budget and this year legislative program are designed to help each and every american citizen fulfill his basic hopes his hopes for a fair chance to make good his hopes for fair play from the law his hopes for a job on pay his hopes for a decent home for his family in a decent community his hopes for a good school for his children with good teachers and his hopes for security when faced with sickness or unemployment or old age iii unfortunately many americans live on the outskirts of hope some because of their poverty and some because of their color and all too many because of both our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity this administration today here and now declares unconditional war on poverty in america i urge this congress and all americans to join with me in that effort it will not be a short or easy struggle no single weapon or strategy will suffice but we shall not rest until that war is won the richest nation on earth can afford to win it we can not afford to lose it one thousand dollars invested in salvaging an unemployable youth today can return or more in his lifetime poverty is a national problem requiring improved national organization and support but this attack to be effective must also be organized at the state and the local level and must be supported and directed by state and local efforts for the war against poverty will not be won here in washington it must be won in the field in every private home in every public office from the courthouse to the white house the program i shall propose will emphasize this cooperative approach to help that of all american families with incomes too small to even meet their basic needs our chief weapons in a more pinpointed attack will be better schools and better health and better homes and better training and better job opportunities to help more americans especially young americans escape from squalor and misery and unemployment rolls where other citizens help to carry them very often a lack of jobs and money is not the because of poverty but the symptom the because may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities in a lack of education and training in a lack of medical care and housing in a lack of decent communities in which to live and bring up their children but whatever the because our joint effort must pursue poverty pursue it wherever it exists in city slums and small towns in sharecropper shacks or in migrant worker camps on indian reservations among whites as well as negroes among the young as well as the aged in the boom towns and in the depressed areas our aim is not only to relieve the symptom of poverty but to cure it and above all to prevent it no single piece of legislation however is going to suffice we will launch a special effort in the chronically distressed areas of appalachia we must expand our small but our successful area redevelopment program we must enact youth employment legislation to put jobless aimless hopeless youngsters to work on useful projects we must distribute more food to the needy through a broader food stamp program we must create a national service corps to help the economically handicapped of our own country as the peace corps now helps those abroad we must modernize our unemployment insurance and establish a commission on automation if we have the brain power to invent these machines we have the brain power to make certain that they are a boon and not a bane to humanity we must extend the coverage of our minimum wage laws to more than 2 million workers now lacking this basic protection of purchasing power we must by including special school aid funds as part of our education program improve the quality of teaching training and counseling in our hardest hit areas we must build more libraries in every area and more hospitals and nursing homes under the act and train more nurses to staff them we must provide hospital insurance for our older citizens financed by every worker and his employer under social security contributing no more than 1 a month during the employee working career to protect him in his old age in a dignified manner without cost to the treasury against the devastating hardship of prolonged or repeated illness we must as a part of a revised housing and urban renewal program give more help to those displaced by slum clearance provide more housing for our poor and our elderly and seek as our ultimate goal in our free enterprise system a decent home for every american family we must help obtain more modern mass transit within our communities as well as transportation between them above all we must release 11 billion of tax reduction into the private spending stream to create new jobs and new markets in every area of this land iv these programs are obviously not for the poor or the underprivileged alone every american will benefit by the extension of social security to cover the hospital costs of their aged parents every american community will benefit from the construction or modernization of schools libraries hospitals and nursing homes from the training of more nurses and from the improvement of urban renewal in public transit and every individual american taxpayer and every corporate taxpayer will benefit from the earliest possible passage of the pending tax bill from both the new investment it will bring and the new jobs that it will create that tax bill has been thoroughly discussed for a year now we need action the new budget clearly allows it our taxpayers surely deserve it our economy strongly demands it and every month of delay dilutes its benefits in 1964 for consumption for investment and for employment for until the bill is signed its investment incentives can not be deemed certain and the withholding rate can not be the most damaging and devastating thing you can do to any businessman in america is to keep him in doubt and to keep him guessing on what our tax policy is and i say that we should now reduce to 14 percent instead of 15 percent our withholding rate i therefore urge the congress to take final action on this bill by the first of february if at all possible for however proud we may be of the unprecedented progress of our free enterprise economy over the last 3 years we should not and we can not permit it to pause in 1963 for the first time in history we crossed the 70 million job mark but we will soon need more than 75 million jobs in 1963 our gross national product reached the 600 billion level 100 billion higher than when we took office but it easily could and it should be still 30 billion higher today than it is wages and profits and family income are also at their highest levels in history but i would remind you that 4 million workers and 13 percent of our industrial capacity are still idle today we need a tax cut now to keep this country moving for our goal is not merely to spread the work our goal is to create more jobs i believe the enactment of a week would sharply increase costs would invite inflation would impair our ability to compete and merely share instead of creating employment but i am equally opposed to the or week in those industries where consistently excessive use of overtime causes increased unemployment so therefore i recommend legislation authorizing the creation of a tripartite industry committee to determine on an basis as to where a higher penalty rate for overtime would increase job openings without unduly increasing costs and authorizing the establishment of such higher rates vi let me make one principle of this administration abundantly clear all of these increased opportunities in employment in education in housing and in every be open to americans of every color as far as the writ of federal law will run we must abolish not some but all racial discrimination for this is not merely an economic issue or a social political or international issue it is a moral issue and it must be met by the passage this session of the bill now pending in the house all members of the public should have equal access to facilities open to the public all members of the public should be equally eligible for federal benefits that are financed by the public all members of the public should have an equal chance to vote for public officials and to send their children to good public schools and to contribute their talents to the public good today americans of all races stand side by side in berlin and in viet nam they died side by side in korea surely they can work and eat and travel side by side in their own country vii we must also lift by legislation the bars of discrimination against those who seek entry into our country particularly those who have much needed skills and those joining their families in establishing preferences a nation that was built by the immigrants of all lands can ask those who now seek admission what can you do for our country but we should not be asking in what country were you born viii for our ultimate goal is a world without war a world made safe for diversity in which all men goods and ideas can freely move across every border and every boundary we must advance toward this goal in 1964 in at least 10 different ways not as partisans but as patriots first we must maintain and our reduced defense budget will maintain that margin of military safety and superiority obtained through 3 years of steadily increasing both the quality and the quantity of our strategic our conventional and our antiguerilla forces in 1964 we will be better prepared than ever before to defend the because of freedom whether it is threatened by outright aggression or by the infiltration practiced by those in hanoi and havana who ship arms and men across international borders to foment insurrection and we must continue to use that strength as john kennedy used it in the cuban crisis and for the test ban treaty to demonstrate both the futility of nuclear war and the possibilities of lasting peace second we must take new steps and we shall make new proposals at geneva toward the control and the eventual abolition of arms even in the absence of agreement we must not stockpile arms beyond our needs or seek an excess of military power that could be provocative as well as wasteful it is in this spirit that in this fiscal year we are cutting back our production of enriched uranium by 25 percent we are shutting down four plutonium piles we are closing many nonessential military installations and it is in this spirit that we today call on our adversaries to do the same third we must make increased use of our food as an instrument of peace making it available by sale or trade or loan or hungry people in all nations which tell us of their needs and accept proper conditions of distribution fourth we must assure our in the peaceful exploration of outer space focusing on an expedition to the moon in this decade in cooperation with other powers if possible alone if necessary fifth we must expand world trade having recognized in the act of 1962 that we must buy as well as sell we now expect our trading partners to recognize that we must sell as well as buy we are willing to give them competitive access to our market asking only that they do the same for us sixth we must continue through such measures as the interest equalization tax as well as the cooperation of other nations our recent progress toward balancing our international accounts this administration must and will preserve the present gold value of the dollar seventh we must become better neighbors with the free states of the americas working with the councils of the oas with a stronger alliance for progress and with all the men and women of this hemisphere who really believe in liberty and justice for all eighth we must strengthen the ability of free nations everywhere to develop their independence and raise their standard of living and thereby frustrate those who prey on poverty and chaos to do this the rich must help the poor and we must do our part we must achieve a more rigorous administration of our development assistance with larger roles for private investors for other industrialized nations and for international agencies and for the recipient nations themselves ninth we must strengthen our atlantic and pacific partnerships maintain our alliances and make the united nations a more effective instrument for national independence and international order tenth and finally we must develop with our allies new means of bridging the gap between the east and the west facing danger boldly wherever danger exists but being equally bold in our search for new agreements which can enlarge the hopes of all while violating the interests of none in short i would say to the congress that we must be constantly prepared for the worst and constantly acting for the best we must be strong enough to win any war and we must be wise enough to prevent one we shall neither act as aggressors nor tolerate acts of aggression we intend to bury no one and we do not intend to be buried we can fight if we must as we have fought before but we pray that we will never have to fight again ix my good friends and my fellow americans in these last 7 sorrowful weeks we have learned anew that nothing is so enduring as faith and nothing is so degrading as hate john kennedy was a victim of hate but he was also a great builder of faith faith in our fellow americans whatever their creed or their color or their station in life faith in the future of man whatever his divisions and differences this faith was echoed in all parts of the world on every continent and in every land to which johnson and i traveled we found faith and hope and love toward this land of america and toward our people so i ask you now in the congress and in the country to join with me in expressing and fulfilling that faith in working for a nation a nation that is free from want and a world that is free from hate a world of peace and justice and freedom and abundance for our time and for all time to come
delivered person joint session speaker president members house senate fellow americans brief time necessarily short agenda already long last year congressional session longest peacetime history foundation let us work together make year session best nation history let session congress known session civil rights last hundred sessions combined session enacted tax cut time session declared war human poverty unemployment united states session finally recognized health needs older citizens session reformed tangled transportation transit policies session achieved effective efficient foreign aid program ever session helped build homes schools libraries hospitals single session congress history republic must done done summer done without increase spending fact budget shall shortly submit done actual reduction federal expenditures federal employment 1964 unique opportunity obligation prove success system disprove cynics critics home abroad question purpose competence fail fritter fumble away opportunity needless senseless quarrels democrats republicans house senate south north congress administration history rightfully judge us harshly succeed achieve goals forging country greater sense union take full satisfaction state union ii congress demonstrate effective legislative leadership discharging public business clarity dispatch voting important proposal voting least bringing fair final vote let us carry forward plans programs john fitzgerald kennedy sorrow sympathy right memory today especially ask members political faith election year put country ahead party always debate principles never debate personalities part pledge progressive administration efficient honest frugal budget submitted congress shortly full accord pledge cut deficit half 10 billion million proportion national output smallest budget since 1951 call substantial reduction federal employment feat accomplished last 10 years maintaining full strength combat defenses call lowest number civilian personnel department defense since 1950 call total expenditures million compared million current year reduction 500 million call new obligational authority million reduction 4 billion last year request million standstill budget america afford stand still population growing economy complex people needs expanding closing obsolete installations curtailing less urgent programs cutting back cutting back seems wise insisting dollar worth dollar spent able recommend reduced budget federal support history education health retraining unemployed helping economically physically handicapped budget year legislative program designed help every american citizen fulfill basic hopes hopes fair chance make good hopes fair play law hopes job pay hopes decent home family decent community hopes good school children good teachers hopes security faced sickness unemployment old age iii unfortunately many americans live outskirts hope poverty color many task help replace despair opportunity administration today declares unconditional war poverty america urge congress americans join effort short easy struggle single weapon strategy suffice shall rest war richest nation earth afford win afford lose one thousand dollars invested salvaging unemployable youth today return lifetime poverty national problem requiring improved national organization support attack effective must also organized state local level must supported directed state local efforts war poverty washington must field every private home every public office courthouse white house program shall propose emphasize cooperative approach help american families incomes small even meet basic needs chief weapons pinpointed attack better schools better health better homes better training better job opportunities help americans especially young americans escape squalor misery unemployment rolls citizens help carry often lack jobs money poverty symptom may lie deeper failure give fellow citizens fair chance develop capacities lack education training lack medical care housing lack decent communities live bring children whatever joint effort must pursue poverty pursue wherever exists city slums small towns sharecropper shacks migrant worker camps indian reservations among whites well negroes among young well aged boom towns depressed areas aim relieve symptom poverty cure prevent single piece legislation however going suffice launch special effort chronically distressed areas appalachia must expand small successful area redevelopment program must enact youth employment legislation put jobless aimless hopeless youngsters work useful projects must distribute food needy broader food stamp program must create national service corps help economically handicapped country peace corps helps abroad must modernize unemployment insurance establish commission automation brain power invent machines brain power make certain boon bane humanity must extend coverage minimum wage laws 2 million workers lacking basic protection purchasing power must including special school aid funds part education program improve quality teaching training counseling hardest hit areas must build libraries every area hospitals nursing homes act train nurses staff must provide hospital insurance older citizens financed every worker employer social security contributing 1 month employee working career protect old age dignified manner without cost treasury devastating hardship prolonged repeated illness must part revised housing urban renewal program give help displaced slum clearance provide housing poor elderly seek ultimate goal free enterprise system decent home every american family must help obtain modern mass transit within communities well transportation must release 11 billion tax reduction private spending stream create new jobs new markets every area land iv programs obviously poor underprivileged alone every american benefit extension social security cover hospital costs aged parents every american community benefit construction modernization schools libraries hospitals nursing homes training nurses improvement urban renewal public transit every individual american taxpayer every corporate taxpayer benefit earliest possible passage pending tax bill new investment bring new jobs create tax bill thoroughly discussed year need action new budget clearly allows taxpayers surely deserve economy strongly demands every month delay dilutes benefits 1964 consumption investment employment bill signed investment incentives deemed certain withholding rate damaging devastating thing businessman america keep doubt keep guessing tax policy say reduce 14 percent instead 15 percent withholding rate therefore urge congress take final action bill first february possible however proud may unprecedented progress free enterprise economy last 3 years permit pause 1963 first time history crossed 70 million job mark soon need 75 million jobs 1963 gross national product reached 600 billion level 100 billion higher took office easily could still 30 billion higher today wages profits family income also highest levels history would remind 4 million workers 13 percent industrial capacity still idle today need tax cut keep country moving goal merely spread work goal create jobs believe enactment week would sharply increase costs would invite inflation would impair ability compete merely share instead creating employment equally opposed week industries consistently excessive use overtime causes increased unemployment therefore recommend legislation authorizing creation tripartite industry committee determine basis higher penalty rate overtime would increase job openings without unduly increasing costs authorizing establishment higher rates vi let make one principle administration abundantly clear increased opportunities employment education housing every open americans every color far writ federal law run must abolish racial discrimination merely economic issue social political international issue moral issue must met passage session bill pending house members public equal access facilities open public members public equally eligible federal benefits financed public members public equal chance vote public officials send children good public schools contribute talents public good today americans races stand side side berlin viet nam died side side korea surely work eat travel side side country vii must also lift legislation bars discrimination seek entry country particularly much needed skills joining families establishing preferences nation built immigrants lands ask seek admission country asking country born viii ultimate goal world without war world made safe diversity men goods ideas freely move across every border every boundary must advance toward goal 1964 least 10 different ways partisans patriots first must maintain reduced defense budget maintain margin military safety superiority obtained 3 years steadily increasing quality quantity strategic conventional antiguerilla forces 1964 better prepared ever defend freedom whether threatened outright aggression infiltration practiced hanoi havana ship arms men across international borders foment insurrection must continue use strength john kennedy used cuban crisis test ban treaty demonstrate futility nuclear war possibilities lasting peace second must take new steps shall make new proposals geneva toward control eventual abolition arms even absence agreement must stockpile arms beyond needs seek excess military power could provocative well wasteful spirit fiscal year cutting back production enriched uranium 25 percent shutting four plutonium piles closing many nonessential military installations spirit today call adversaries third must make increased use food instrument peace making available sale trade loan hungry people nations tell us needs accept proper conditions distribution fourth must assure peaceful exploration outer space focusing expedition moon decade cooperation powers possible alone necessary fifth must expand world trade recognized act 1962 must buy well sell expect trading partners recognize must sell well buy willing give competitive access market asking us sixth must continue measures interest equalization tax well cooperation nations recent progress toward balancing international accounts administration must preserve present gold value dollar seventh must become better neighbors free states americas working councils oas stronger alliance progress men women hemisphere really believe liberty justice eighth must strengthen ability free nations everywhere develop independence raise standard living thereby frustrate prey poverty chaos rich must help poor must part must achieve rigorous administration development assistance larger roles private investors industrialized nations international agencies recipient nations ninth must strengthen atlantic pacific partnerships maintain alliances make united nations effective instrument national independence international order tenth finally must develop allies new means bridging gap east west facing danger boldly wherever danger exists equally bold search new agreements enlarge hopes violating interests none short would say congress must constantly prepared worst constantly acting best must strong enough win war must wise enough prevent one shall neither act aggressors tolerate acts aggression intend bury one intend buried fight must fought pray never fight ix good friends fellow americans last 7 sorrowful weeks learned anew nothing enduring faith nothing degrading hate john kennedy victim hate also great builder faith faith fellow americans whatever creed color station life faith future man whatever divisions differences faith echoed parts world every continent every land johnson traveled found faith hope love toward land america toward people ask congress country join expressing fulfilling faith working nation nation free want world free hate world peace justice freedom abundance time time come
deliver person joint session speaker president member house senate fellow american brief time necessarily short agenda already long last year congressional session long peacetime history foundation let u work together make year session best nation history let session congress know session civil right last hundred session combine session enact tax cut time session declare war human poverty unemployment united state session finally recognize health need older citizen session reform tangled transportation transit policy session achieve effective efficient foreign aid program ever session help build home school library hospital single session congress history republic must do do summer do without increase spending fact budget shall shortly submit do actual reduction federal expenditures federal employment 1964 unique opportunity obligation prove success system disprove cynic critic home abroad question purpose competence fail fritter fumble away opportunity needless senseless quarrel democrat republicans house senate south north congress administration history rightfully judge u harshly succeed achieve goal forge country great sense union take full satisfaction state union ii congress demonstrate effective legislative leadership discharge public business clarity dispatch voting important proposal vote least bring fair final vote let u carry forward plan program john fitzgerald kennedy sorrow sympathy right memory today especially ask member political faith election year put country ahead party always debate principle never debate personality part pledge progressive administration efficient honest frugal budget submit congress shortly full accord pledge cut deficit half 10 billion million proportion national output small budget since 1951 call substantial reduction federal employment feat accomplish last 10 year maintain full strength combat defenses call low number civilian personnel department defense since 1950 call total expenditures million compare million current year reduction 500 million call new obligational authority million reduction 4 billion last year request million standstill budget america afford stand still population grow economy complex people need expand closing obsolete installation curtail less urgent program cut back cut back seem wise insist dollar worth dollar spend able recommend reduce budget federal support history education health retrain unemployed help economically physically handicap budget year legislative program design help every american citizen fulfill basic hop hope fair chance make good hope fair play law hope job pay hop decent home family decent community hop good school child good teacher hop security face sickness unemployment old age iii unfortunately many american live outskirt hope poverty color many task help replace despair opportunity administration today declare unconditional war poverty america urge congress american join effort short easy struggle single weapon strategy suffice shall rest war rich nation earth afford win afford lose one thousand dollar invest salvage unemployable youth today return lifetime poverty national problem require improve national organization support attack effective must also organize state local level must support directed state local effort war poverty washington must field every private home every public office courthouse white house program shall propose emphasize cooperative approach help american family incomes small even meet basic need chief weapon pinpoint attack well school well health well home well train well job opportunity help american especially young american escape squalor misery unemployment roll citizens help carry often lack job money poverty symptom may lie deep failure give fellow citizen fair chance develop capacity lack education training lack medical care housing lack decent community live bring child whatever joint effort must pursue poverty pursue wherever exist city slum small town sharecropper shack migrant worker camp indian reservation among white well negro among young well age boom town depress area aim relieve symptom poverty cure prevent single piece legislation however go suffice launch special effort chronically distressed area appalachia must expand small successful area redevelopment program must enact youth employment legislation put jobless aimless hopeless youngster work useful project must distribute food needy broader food stamp program must create national service corp help economically handicap country peace corp help abroad must modernize unemployment insurance establish commission automation brain power invent machine brain power make certain boon bane humanity must extend coverage minimum wage law 2 million worker lack basic protection purchase power must include special school aid fund part education program improve quality teach train counsel hard hit area must build library every area hospital nurse home act train nurses staff must provide hospital insurance old citizen finance every worker employer social security contribute 1 month employee work career protect old age dignify manner without cost treasury devastate hardship prolong repeated illness must part revise housing urban renewal program give help displace slum clearance provide housing poor elderly seek ultimate goal free enterprise system decent home every american family must help obtain modern mass transit within community well transportation must release 11 billion tax reduction private spending stream create new job new market every area land iv program obviously poor underprivileged alone every american benefit extension social security cover hospital cost age parent every american community benefit construction modernization school libraries hospital nurse home train nurse improvement urban renewal public transit every individual american taxpayer every corporate taxpayer benefit early possible passage pending tax bill new investment bring new job create tax bill thoroughly discuss year need action new budget clearly allow taxpayer surely deserve economy strongly demand every month delay dilute benefit 1964 consumption investment employment bill sign investment incentive deem certain withholding rate damage devastate thing businessman america keep doubt keep guess tax policy say reduce 14 percent instead 15 percent withhold rate therefore urge congress take final action bill first february possible however proud may unprecedented progress free enterprise economy last 3 year permit pause 1963 first time history cross 70 million job mark soon need 75 million job 1963 gross national product reach 600 billion level 100 billion high take office easily could still 30 billion high today wag profit family income also high level history would remind 4 million worker 13 percent industrial capacity still idle today need tax cut keep country move goal merely spread work goal create job believe enactment week would sharply increase cost would invite inflation would impair ability compete merely share instead create employment equally oppose week industry consistently excessive use overtime cause increase unemployment therefore recommend legislation authorize creation tripartite industry committee determine basis high penalty rate overtime would increase job opening without unduly increase cost authorize establishment high rate vi let make one principle administration abundantly clear increase opportunity employment education housing every open american every color far writ federal law run must abolish racial discrimination merely economic issue social political international issue moral issue must meet passage session bill pending house member public equal access facility open public member public equally eligible federal benefit finance public member public equal chance vote public official send child good public school contribute talent public good today american race stand side side berlin viet nam die side side korea surely work eat travel side side country vii must also lift legislation bar discrimination seek entry country particularly much need skill join family establish preference nation build immigrant land ask seek admission country ask country bear viii ultimate goal world without war world make safe diversity men good idea freely move across every border every boundary must advance toward goal 1964 least 10 different way partisan patriots first must maintain reduced defense budget maintain margin military safety superiority obtain 3 year steadily increase quality quantity strategic conventional antiguerilla force 1964 well prepare ever defend freedom whether threatened outright aggression infiltration practice hanoi havana ship arm men across international border foment insurrection must continue use strength john kennedy use cuban crisis test ban treaty demonstrate futility nuclear war possibility last peace second must take new step shall make new proposal geneva toward control eventual abolition arm even absence agreement must stockpile arm beyond need seek excess military power could provocative well wasteful spirit fiscal year cut back production enrich uranium 25 percent shut four plutonium pile close many nonessential military installation spirit today call adversary third must make increase use food instrument peace make available sale trade loan hungry people nation tell u need accept proper condition distribution fourth must assure peaceful exploration outer space focus expedition moon decade cooperation power possible alone necessary fifth must expand world trade recognize act 1962 must buy well sell expect trading partner recognize must sell well buy willing give competitive access market ask u sixth must continue measure interest equalization tax well cooperation nation recent progress toward balance international account administration must preserve present gold value dollar seventh must become good neighbor free state americas work council oas strong alliance progress men woman hemisphere really believe liberty justice eighth must strengthen ability free nation everywhere develop independence raise standard living thereby frustrate prey poverty chaos rich must help poor must part must achieve rigorous administration development assistance large role private investor industrialize nation international agency recipient nation ninth must strengthen atlantic pacific partnership maintain alliance make united nation effective instrument national independence international order tenth finally must develop ally new mean bridge gap east west facing danger boldly wherever danger exist equally bold search new agreement enlarge hope violate interest none short would say congress must constantly prepared bad constantly act best must strong enough win war must wise enough prevent one shall neither act aggressor tolerate act aggression intend bury one intend bury fight must fight pray never fight ix good friend fellow american last 7 sorrowful week learn anew nothing endure faith nothing degrade hate john kennedy victim hate also great builder faith faith fellow american whatever creed color station life faith future man whatever division difference faith echoed part world every continent every land johnson travel find faith hope love toward land america toward people ask congress country join express fulfil faith working nation nation free want world free hate world peace justice freedom abundance time time come