Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our distinguished guests, my fellow Americans: Twenty-five years ago I sat here as a freshman Congressman--along with Speaker Albert--and listened for the first time to the President address the State of the Union. I shall never forget that moment. The Senate, the diplomatic corps, the Supreme Court, the Cabinet entered the Chamber, and then the President of the United States. As all of you are aware, I had some differences with President Truman. He had some with me. But I remember that on that day--the day he addressed that joint session of the newly elected Republican 80th Congress, he spoke not as a partisan, but as President of all the people-calling upon the Congress to put aside partisan considerations in the national interest. The Greek-Turkish aid program, the Marshall Plan, the great foreign policy initiatives which have been responsible for avoiding a world war for over 25 years were approved by the 80th Congress, by a bipartisan majority of which I was proud to be a part. Nineteen hundred seventy-two is now before us. It holds precious time in which to accomplish good for the Nation. We must not waste it. I know the political pressures in this session of the Congress will be great. There are more candidates for the Presidency in this Chamber today than there probably have been at any one time in the whole history of the Republic. And there is an honest difference of opinion, not only between the parties, but within each party, on some foreign policy issues and on some domestic policy issues. However, there are great national problems that are so vital that they transcend partisanship. So let us have our debates. Let us have our honest differences. But let us join in keeping the national interest first. Let us join in making sure that legislation the Nation needs does not become hostage to the political interests of any party or any person. There is ample precedent, in this election year, for me to present you with a huge list of new proposals, knowing full well that there would not be any possibility of your passing them if you worked night and day. 
I shall not do that. I have presented to the leaders of the Congress today a message of 15,000 words discussing in some detail where the Nation stands and setting forth specific legislative items on which I have asked the Congress to act. Much of this is legislation which I proposed in 1969, in 1970, and also in the first session of this 92d Congress and on which I feel it is essential that action be completed this year. I am not presenting proposals which have attractive labels but no hope of passage. I am presenting only vital programs which are within the capacity of this Congress to enact, within the capacity of the budget to finance, and which I believe should be above partisanship--programs which deal with urgent priorities for the Nation, which should and must be the subject of bipartisan action by this Congress in the interests of the country in 1972. When I took the oath of office on the steps of this building just 3 years ago today, the Nation was ending one of the most tortured decades in its history. The 1960's were a time of great progress in many areas. But as we all know, they were also times of great agony--the agonies of war, of inflation, of rapidly rising crime, of deteriorating titles, of hopes raised and disappointed, and of anger and frustration that led finally to violence and to the worst civil disorder in a century. I recall these troubles not to point any fingers of blame. The Nation was so torn in those final years of the sixties that many in both parties questioned whether America could be governed at all. 
The Nation has made significant progress in these first years of the seventies: 
Our cities are no longer engulfed by civil disorders. 
Our colleges and universities have again become places of learning instead of battlegrounds. 
A beginning has been made in preserving and protecting our environment. The rate of increase in crime has been slowed--and here in the District of Columbia, the one city where the Federal Government has direct jurisdiction, serious crime in 1971 was actually reduced by 13 percent from the year before. Most important, because of the beginnings that have been made, we can say today that this year 1972 can be the year in which America may make the greatest progress in 25 years toward achieving our goal of being at peace with all the nations of the world. As our involvement in the war in Vietnam comes to an end, we must now go on to build a generation of peace. To achieve that goal, we must first face realistically the need to maintain our defense. In the past 3 years, we have reduced the burden of arms. For the first time in 20 years, spending on defense has been brought below spending on human resources. As we look to the future, we find encouraging progress in our negotiations with the Soviet Union on limitation of strategic arms. And looking further into the future, we hope there can eventually be agreement on the mutual reduction of arms. But until there is such a mutual agreement, we must maintain the strength necessary to deter war. And that is why, because of rising research and development costs, because of increases in military and civilian pay, because of the need to proceed with new weapons systems, my budget for the coming fiscal year will provide for an increase in defense spending. Strong military defenses are not the enemy of peace; they are the guardians of peace. There could be no more misguided set of priorities than one which would tempt others by weakening America, and thereby endanger the peace of the world. In our foreign policy, we have entered a new era. The world has changed greatly in the 11 years since President John Kennedy said in his Inaugural Address, "... we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." Our policy has been carefully and deliberately adjusted to meet the new realities of the new world we live in. We make today only those commitments we are able and prepared to meet. Our commitment to freedom remains strong and unshakable. But others must bear their share of the burden of defending freedom around the world. 
And so this, then, is our policy: 
--We will maintain a nuclear deterrent adequate to meet any threat to the security of the United States or of our allies. 
--We will help other nations develop the capability of defending themselves. 
--We will faithfully honor all of our treaty commitments. 
--We will act to defend our interests, whenever and wherever they are threatened anyplace in the world. 
--But where our interests or our treaty commitments are not involved, our role will be limited. 
--We will not intervene militarily. 
--But we will use our influence to prevent war. 
--If war comes, we will use our influence to stop it. 
--Once it is over, we will do our share in helping to bind up the wounds of those who have participated in it. As you know, I will soon be visiting the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. I go there with no illusions. We have great differences with both powers. We shall continue to have great differences. But peace depends on the ability of great powers to live together on the same planet despite their differences. We would not be true to our obligation to generations yet unborn if we failed to seize this moment to do everything in our power to insure that we will be able to talk about those differences, rather than to fight about them, in the future. As we look back over this century, let us, in the highest spirit of bipartisanship, recognize that we can be proud of our Nation's record in foreign affairs. America has given more generously of itself toward maintaining freedom, preserving peace, alleviating human suffering around the globe, than any nation has ever done in the history of man. We have fought four wars in this century, but our power has never been used to break the peace, only to keep it; never been used to destroy freedom, only to defend it. We now have within our reach the goal of insuring that the next generation can be the first generation in this century to be spared the scourges of war. Turning to our problems at home, we are making progress toward our goal of a new prosperity without war. Industrial production, consumer spending, retail sales, personal income all have been rising. Total employment, real income are the highest in history. New home building starts this past year reached the highest level ever. Business and consumer confidence have both been rising. Interest rates are down. The rate of inflation is down. We can look with confidence to 1972 as the year when the back of inflation will be broken. Now, this a good record, but it is not good enough--not when we still have an unemployment rate of 6 percent. It is not enough to point out that this was the rate of the early peacetime years of the sixties, or that if the more than 2 million men released from the Armed Forces and defense-related industries were still in their wartime jobs, unemployment would be far lower. Our goal in this country is full employment in peacetime. We intend to meet that goal, and we can. The Congress has helped to meet that goal by passing our job-creating tax program last month. The historic monetary agreements, agreements that we have reached with the major European nations, Canada, and Japan, will help meet it by providing new markets for American products, new jobs for American workers. Our budget will help meet it by being expansionary without being inflationary-a job-producing budget that will help take up the gap as the economy expands to full employment. Our program to raise farm income will help meet it by helping to revitalize rural America, by giving to America's farmers their fair share of America's increasing productivity. We also will help meet our goal of full employment in peacetime with a set of major initiatives to stimulate more imaginative use of America's great capacity for technological advance, and to direct it toward improving the quality of life for every American. In reaching the moon, we demonstrated what miracles American technology is capable of achieving. Now the time has come to move more deliberately toward making full use of that technology here on earth, of harnessing the wonders of science to the service of man. I shall soon send to the Congress a special message proposing a new program of Federal partnership in technological research and development--with Federal incentives to increase private research, federally supported research on projects designed to improve our everyday lives in ways that will range from improving mass transit to developing new systems of emergency health care that could save thousands of lives annually. Historically, our superior technology, and high productivity have made it possible for American workers to be the highest paid in the world by far, and yet for our goods still to compete in world markets. Now we face a new situation. As other nations move rapidly forward in technology, the answer to the new competition is not to build a wall around America, but rather to remain competitive by improving our own technology still further and by increasing productivity in American industry. Our new monetary and trade agreements will make it possible for American goods to compete fairly in the world's markets--but they still must compete. The new technology program will put to use the skills of many highly trained Americans, skills that might otherwise be wasted. It will also meet the growing technological challenge from abroad, and it will thus help to create new industries, as well as creating more jobs for America's workers in producing for the world's markets. This second session of the 92d Congress already has before it more than 90 major Administration proposals which still await action. I have discussed these in the extensive written message that I have presented to the Congress today. They include, among others, our programs to improve life for the aging; to combat crime and drug abuse; to improve health services and to ensure that no one will be denied needed health care because of inability to pay; to protect workers' pension rights; to promote equal opportunity for members of minorities, and others who have been left behind; to expand consumer protection; to improve the environment; to revitalize rural America; to help the cities; to launch new initiatives in education; to improve transportation, and to put an end to costly labor tie-ups in transportation. The west coast dock strike is a case in point. This Nation cannot and will not tolerate that kind of irresponsible labor tie-up in the future. The messages also include basic reforms which are essential if our structure of government is to be adequate in the decades ahead. They include reform of our wasteful and outmoded welfare system--substitution of a new system that provides work requirements and work incentives for those who can help themselves, income support for those who cannot help themselves, and fairness to the working poor. They include a $17 billion program of Federal revenue sharing with the States and localities as an investment in their renewal, an investment also of faith in the American people. They also include a sweeping reorganization of the executive branch of the Federal Government so that it will be more efficient, more responsive, and able to meet the challenges of the decades ahead. One year ago, standing in this place, I laid before the opening session of this Congress six great goals. One of these was welfare reform. That proposal has been before the Congress now for nearly 2 1/2 years. My proposals on revenue sharing, government reorganization, health care, and the environment have now been before the Congress for nearly a year. Many of the other major proposals that I have referred to have been here that long or longer. Now, 1971, we can say, was a year of consideration of these measures. Now let us join in making 1972 a year of action on them, action by the Congress, for the Nation and for the people of America. Now, in addition, there is one pressing need which I have not previously covered, but which must be placed on the national agenda. We long have looked in this Nation to the local property tax as the main source of financing for public primary and secondary education. As a result, soaring school costs, soaring property tax rates now threaten both our communities and our schools. They threaten communities because property taxes, which more than doubled in the 10 years from 1960 to '70, have become one of the most oppressive and discriminatory of all taxes, hitting most cruelly at the elderly and the retired; and they threaten schools, as hard-pressed voters understandably reject new bond issues at the polls. The problem has been given even greater urgency by four recent court decisions, which have held that the conventional method of financing schools through local property taxes is discriminatory and unconstitutional. Nearly 2 years ago, I named a special Presidential commission to study the problems of school finance, and I also directed the Federal departments to look into the same problems. We are developing comprehensive proposals to meet these problems. This issue involves two complex and interrelated sets of problems: support of the schools and the basic relationships of Federal, State, and local governments in any tax reforms. Under the leadership of the Secretary of the Treasury, we are carefully reviewing all of the tax aspects, and I have this week enlisted the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations in addressing the intergovernmental relations aspects. I have asked this bipartisan Commission to review our proposals for Federal action to cope with the gathering crisis of school finance and property taxes. Later in the year, when both Commissions have completed their studies, I shall make my final recommendations for relieving the burden of property taxes and providing both fair and adequate financing for our children's education. These recommendations will be revolutionary. But all these recommendations, however, will be rooted in one fundamental principle with which there can be no compromise: Local school boards must have control over local schools. As we look ahead over the coming decades, vast new growth and change are not only certainties, they will be the dominant reality of this world, and particularly of our life in America. Surveying the certainty of rapid change, we can be like a fallen rider caught in the stirrups-- r we can sit high in the saddle, the masters of change, directing it on a course we choose. The secret of mastering change in today's world is to reach back to old and proven principles, and to adapt them with imagination and intelligence to the new realities of a new age. That is what we have done in the proposals that I have laid before the Congress. They are rooted in basic principles that are as enduring as human nature, as robust as the American experience; and they are responsive to new conditions. Thus they represent a spirit of change that is truly renewal. As we look back at those old principles, we find them as timely as they are timeless. 
We believe in independence, and self-reliance, and the creative value of the competitive spirit. We believe in full and equal opportunity for all Americans and in the protection of individual rights and liberties. We believe in the family as the keystone of the community, and in the community as the keystone of the Nation. We believe in compassion toward those in need. We believe in a system of law, justice, and order as the basis of a genuinely free society. We believe that a person should get what he works for--and that those who can, should work for what they get. We believe in the capacity of people to make their own decisions in their own lives, in their own communities--and we believe in their right to make those decisions. In applying these principles, we have done so with the full understanding that what we seek in the seventies, what our quest is, is not merely for more, but for better for a better quality of life for all Americans. Thus, for example, we are giving a new measure of attention to cleaning up our air and water, making our surroundings more attractive. We are providing broader support for the arts, helping stimulate a deeper appreciation of what they can contribute to the Nation's activities and to our individual lives. But nothing really matters more to the quality of our lives than the way we treat one another, than our capacity to live respectfully together as a unified society, with a full, generous regard for the rights of others and also for the feelings of others. As we recover from the turmoil and violence of recent years, as we learn once again to speak with one another instead of shouting at one another, we are regaining that capacity. As is customary here, on this occasion, I have been talking about programs. Programs are important. But even more important than programs is what we are as a Nation--what we mean as a Nation, to ourselves and to the world. In New York Harbor stands one of the most famous statues in the world--the Statue of Liberty, the gift in 1886 of the people of France to the people of the United States. This statue is more than a landmark; it is a symbol--a symbol of what America has meant to the world. It reminds us that what America has meant is not its wealth, and not its power, but its spirit and purpose--a land that enshrines liberty and opportunity, and that has held out a hand of welcome to millions in search of a better and a fuller and, above all, a freer life. The world's hopes poured into America, along with its people. And those hopes, those dreams, that have been brought here from every corner of the world, have become a part of the hope that we now hold out to the world. Four years from now, America will celebrate the 200th anniversary of its founding as a Nation. There are those who say that the old Spirit of '76 is dead---that we no longer have the strength of character, the idealism, the faith in our founding purposes that that spirit represents. Those who say this do not know America. We have been undergoing self-doubts and self-criticism. But these are only the other side of our growing sensitivity to the persistence of want in the midst of plenty, of our impatience with the slowness with which age-old ills are being overcome. If we were indifferent to the shortcomings of our society, or complacent about our institutions, or blind to the lingering inequities--then we would have lost our way. But the fact that we have those concerns is evidence that our ideals, deep down, are still strong. Indeed, they remind us that what is really best about America is its compassion. They remind us that in the final analysis, America is great not because it is strong, not because it is rich, but because this is a good country. Let us reject the narrow visions of those who would tell us that we are evil because we are not yet perfect, that we are corrupt because we are not yet pure, that all the sweat and toil and sacrifice that have gone into the building of America were for naught because the building is not yet done. Let us see that the path we are traveling is wide, with room in it for all of us, and that its direction is toward a better Nation and a more peaceful world. Never has it mattered more that we go forward together. Look at this Chamber. The leadership of America is here today--the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, the Senate, the House of Representatives. Together, we hold the future of the Nation, and the conscience of the Nation in our hands. Because this year is an election year, it will be a time of great pressure. If we yield to that pressure and fail to deal seriously with the historic challenges that we face, we will have failed the trust of millions of Americans and shaken the confidence they have a right to place in us, in their Government. Never has a Congress had a greater opportunity to leave a legacy of a profound and constructive reform for the Nation than this Congress. If we succeed in these tasks, there will be credit enough for all--not only for doing what is right, but doing it in the right way, by rising above partisan interest to serve the national interest. And if we fail, more than any one of us, America will be the loser. That is why my call upon the Congress today is for a high statesmanship, so that in the years to come Americans will look back and say because it withstood the intense pressures of a political year, and achieved such great good for the American people and for the future of this Nation, this was truly a great Congress.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our distinguished guests, my fellow Americans: Twenty-five years ago I sat here as a freshman Congressman--along with Speaker Albert--and listened for the first time to the President address the State of the Union. I shall never forget that moment. The Senate, the diplomatic corps, the Supreme Court, the Cabinet entered the Chamber, and then the President of the United States. As all of you are aware, I had some differences with President Truman. He had some with me. But I remember that on that day--the day he addressed that joint session of the newly elected Republican 80th Congress, he spoke not as a partisan, but as President of all the people-calling upon the Congress to put aside partisan considerations in the national interest. The Greek-Turkish aid program, the Marshall Plan, the great foreign policy initiatives which have been responsible for avoiding a world war for over 25 years were approved by the 80th Congress, by a bipartisan majority of which I was proud to be a part. Nineteen hundred seventy-two is now before us. It holds precious time in which to accomplish good for the Nation. We must not waste it. I know the political pressures in this session of the Congress will be great. There are more candidates for the Presidency in this Chamber today than there probably have been at any one time in the whole history of the Republic. And there is an honest difference of opinion, not only between the parties, but within each party, on some foreign policy issues and on some domestic policy issues. However, there are great national problems that are so vital that they transcend partisanship. So let us have our debates. Let us have our honest differences. But let us join in keeping the national interest first. Let us join in making sure that legislation the Nation needs does not become hostage to the political interests of any party or any person. There is ample precedent, in this election year, for me to present you with a huge list of new proposals, knowing full well that there would not be any possibility of your passing them if you worked night and day. I shall not do that. I have presented to the leaders of the Congress today a message of 15,000 words discussing in some detail where the Nation stands and setting forth specific legislative items on which I have asked the Congress to act. Much of this is legislation which I proposed in 1969, in 1970, and also in the first session of this 92d Congress and on which I feel it is essential that action be completed this year. I am not presenting proposals which have attractive labels but no hope of passage. I am presenting only vital programs which are within the capacity of this Congress to enact, within the capacity of the budget to finance, and which I believe should be above partisanship--programs which deal with urgent priorities for the Nation, which should and must be the subject of bipartisan action by this Congress in the interests of the country in 1972. When I took the oath of office on the steps of this building just 3 years ago today, the Nation was ending one of the most tortured decades in its history. The 1960's were a time of great progress in many areas. But as we all know, they were also times of great agony--the agonies of war, of inflation, of rapidly rising crime, of deteriorating titles, of hopes raised and disappointed, and of anger and frustration that led finally to violence and to the worst civil disorder in a century. I recall these troubles not to point any fingers of blame. The Nation was so torn in those final years of the sixties that many in both parties questioned whether America could be governed at all. The Nation has made significant progress in these first years of the seventies: Our cities are no longer engulfed by civil disorders. Our colleges and universities have again become places of learning instead of battlegrounds. A beginning has been made in preserving and protecting our environment. The rate of increase in crime has been slowed--and here in the District of Columbia, the one city where the Federal Government has direct jurisdiction, serious crime in 1971 was actually reduced by 13 percent from the year before. Most important, because of the beginnings that have been made, we can say today that this year 1972 can be the year in which America may make the greatest progress in 25 years toward achieving our goal of being at peace with all the nations of the world. As our involvement in the war in Vietnam comes to an end, we must now go on to build a generation of peace. To achieve that goal, we must first face realistically the need to maintain our defense. In the past 3 years, we have reduced the burden of arms. For the first time in 20 years, spending on defense has been brought below spending on human resources. As we look to the future, we find encouraging progress in our negotiations with the Soviet Union on limitation of strategic arms. And looking further into the future, we hope there can eventually be agreement on the mutual reduction of arms. But until there is such a mutual agreement, we must maintain the strength necessary to deter war. And that is why, because of rising research and development costs, because of increases in military and civilian pay, because of the need to proceed with new weapons systems, my budget for the coming fiscal year will provide for an increase in defense spending. Strong military defenses are not the enemy of peace; they are the guardians of peace. There could be no more misguided set of priorities than one which would tempt others by weakening America, and thereby endanger the peace of the world. In our foreign policy, we have entered a new era. The world has changed greatly in the 11 years since President John Kennedy said in his Inaugural Address, "... we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." Our policy has been carefully and deliberately adjusted to meet the new realities of the new world we live in. We make today only those commitments we are able and prepared to meet. Our commitment to freedom remains strong and unshakable. But others must bear their share of the burden of defending freedom around the world. And so this, then, is our policy: --We will maintain a nuclear deterrent adequate to meet any threat to the security of the United States or of our allies. --We will help other nations develop the capability of defending themselves. --We will faithfully honor all of our treaty commitments. --We will act to defend our interests, whenever and wherever they are threatened anyplace in the world. --But where our interests or our treaty commitments are not involved, our role will be limited. --We will not intervene militarily. --But we will use our influence to prevent war. --If war comes, we will use our influence to stop it. --Once it is over, we will do our share in helping to bind up the wounds of those who have participated in it. As you know, I will soon be visiting the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. I go there with no illusions. We have great differences with both powers. We shall continue to have great differences. But peace depends on the ability of great powers to live together on the same planet despite their differences. We would not be true to our obligation to generations yet unborn if we failed to seize this moment to do everything in our power to insure that we will be able to talk about those differences, rather than to fight about them, in the future. As we look back over this century, let us, in the highest spirit of bipartisanship, recognize that we can be proud of our Nation's record in foreign affairs. America has given more generously of itself toward maintaining freedom, preserving peace, alleviating human suffering around the globe, than any nation has ever done in the history of man. We have fought four wars in this century, but our power has never been used to break the peace, only to keep it; never been used to destroy freedom, only to defend it. We now have within our reach the goal of insuring that the next generation can be the first generation in this century to be spared the scourges of war. Turning to our problems at home, we are making progress toward our goal of a new prosperity without war. Industrial production, consumer spending, retail sales, personal income all have been rising. Total employment, real income are the highest in history. New home building starts this past year reached the highest level ever. Business and consumer confidence have both been rising. Interest rates are down. The rate of inflation is down. We can look with confidence to 1972 as the year when the back of inflation will be broken. Now, this a good record, but it is not good enough--not when we still have an unemployment rate of 6 percent. It is not enough to point out that this was the rate of the early peacetime years of the sixties, or that if the more than 2 million men released from the Armed Forces and defense-related industries were still in their wartime jobs, unemployment would be far lower. Our goal in this country is full employment in peacetime. We intend to meet that goal, and we can. The Congress has helped to meet that goal by passing our job-creating tax program last month. The historic monetary agreements, agreements that we have reached with the major European nations, Canada, and Japan, will help meet it by providing new markets for American products, new jobs for American workers. Our budget will help meet it by being expansionary without being inflationary-a job-producing budget that will help take up the gap as the economy expands to full employment. Our program to raise farm income will help meet it by helping to revitalize rural America, by giving to America's farmers their fair share of America's increasing productivity. We also will help meet our goal of full employment in peacetime with a set of major initiatives to stimulate more imaginative use of America's great capacity for technological advance, and to direct it toward improving the quality of life for every American. In reaching the moon, we demonstrated what miracles American technology is capable of achieving. Now the time has come to move more deliberately toward making full use of that technology here on earth, of harnessing the wonders of science to the service of man. I shall soon send to the Congress a special message proposing a new program of Federal partnership in technological research and development--with Federal incentives to increase private research, federally supported research on projects designed to improve our everyday lives in ways that will range from improving mass transit to developing new systems of emergency health care that could save thousands of lives annually. Historically, our superior technology, and high productivity have made it possible for American workers to be the highest paid in the world by far, and yet for our goods still to compete in world markets. Now we face a new situation. As other nations move rapidly forward in technology, the answer to the new competition is not to build a wall around America, but rather to remain competitive by improving our own technology still further and by increasing productivity in American industry. Our new monetary and trade agreements will make it possible for American goods to compete fairly in the world's markets--but they still must compete. The new technology program will put to use the skills of many highly trained Americans, skills that might otherwise be wasted. It will also meet the growing technological challenge from abroad, and it will thus help to create new industries, as well as creating more jobs for America's workers in producing for the world's markets. This second session of the 92d Congress already has before it more than 90 major Administration proposals which still await action. I have discussed these in the extensive written message that I have presented to the Congress today. They include, among others, our programs to improve life for the aging; to combat crime and drug abuse; to improve health services and to ensure that no one will be denied needed health care because of inability to pay; to protect workers' pension rights; to promote equal opportunity for members of minorities, and others who have been left behind; to expand consumer protection; to improve the environment; to revitalize rural America; to help the cities; to launch new initiatives in education; to improve transportation, and to put an end to costly labor tie-ups in transportation. The west coast dock strike is a case in point. This Nation cannot and will not tolerate that kind of irresponsible labor tie-up in the future. The messages also include basic reforms which are essential if our structure of government is to be adequate in the decades ahead. They include reform of our wasteful and outmoded welfare system--substitution of a new system that provides work requirements and work incentives for those who can help themselves, income support for those who cannot help themselves, and fairness to the working poor. They include a $17 billion program of Federal revenue sharing with the States and localities as an investment in their renewal, an investment also of faith in the American people. They also include a sweeping reorganization of the executive branch of the Federal Government so that it will be more efficient, more responsive, and able to meet the challenges of the decades ahead. One year ago, standing in this place, I laid before the opening session of this Congress six great goals. One of these was welfare reform. That proposal has been before the Congress now for nearly 2 1/2 years. My proposals on revenue sharing, government reorganization, health care, and the environment have now been before the Congress for nearly a year. Many of the other major proposals that I have referred to have been here that long or longer. Now, 1971, we can say, was a year of consideration of these measures. Now let us join in making 1972 a year of action on them, action by the Congress, for the Nation and for the people of America. Now, in addition, there is one pressing need which I have not previously covered, but which must be placed on the national agenda. We long have looked in this Nation to the local property tax as the main source of financing for public primary and secondary education. As a result, soaring school costs, soaring property tax rates now threaten both our communities and our schools. They threaten communities because property taxes, which more than doubled in the 10 years from 1960 to '70, have become one of the most oppressive and discriminatory of all taxes, hitting most cruelly at the elderly and the retired; and they threaten schools, as hard-pressed voters understandably reject new bond issues at the polls. The problem has been given even greater urgency by four recent court decisions, which have held that the conventional method of financing schools through local property taxes is discriminatory and unconstitutional. Nearly 2 years ago, I named a special Presidential commission to study the problems of school finance, and I also directed the Federal departments to look into the same problems. We are developing comprehensive proposals to meet these problems. This issue involves two complex and interrelated sets of problems: support of the schools and the basic relationships of Federal, State, and local governments in any tax reforms. Under the leadership of the Secretary of the Treasury, we are carefully reviewing all of the tax aspects, and I have this week enlisted the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations in addressing the intergovernmental relations aspects. I have asked this bipartisan Commission to review our proposals for Federal action to cope with the gathering crisis of school finance and property taxes. Later in the year, when both Commissions have completed their studies, I shall make my final recommendations for relieving the burden of property taxes and providing both fair and adequate financing for our children's education. These recommendations will be revolutionary. But all these recommendations, however, will be rooted in one fundamental principle with which there can be no compromise: Local school boards must have control over local schools. As we look ahead over the coming decades, vast new growth and change are not only certainties, they will be the dominant reality of this world, and particularly of our life in America. Surveying the certainty of rapid change, we can be like a fallen rider caught in the stirrups-- r we can sit high in the saddle, the masters of change, directing it on a course we choose. The secret of mastering change in today's world is to reach back to old and proven principles, and to adapt them with imagination and intelligence to the new realities of a new age. That is what we have done in the proposals that I have laid before the Congress. They are rooted in basic principles that are as enduring as human nature, as robust as the American experience; and they are responsive to new conditions. Thus they represent a spirit of change that is truly renewal. As we look back at those old principles, we find them as timely as they are timeless. We believe in independence, and self-reliance, and the creative value of the competitive spirit. We believe in full and equal opportunity for all Americans and in the protection of individual rights and liberties. We believe in the family as the keystone of the community, and in the community as the keystone of the Nation. We believe in compassion toward those in need. We believe in a system of law, justice, and order as the basis of a genuinely free society. We believe that a person should get what he works for--and that those who can, should work for what they get. We believe in the capacity of people to make their own decisions in their own lives, in their own communities--and we believe in their right to make those decisions. In applying these principles, we have done so with the full understanding that what we seek in the seventies, what our quest is, is not merely for more, but for better for a better quality of life for all Americans. Thus, for example, we are giving a new measure of attention to cleaning up our air and water, making our surroundings more attractive. We are providing broader support for the arts, helping stimulate a deeper appreciation of what they can contribute to the Nation's activities and to our individual lives. But nothing really matters more to the quality of our lives than the way we treat one another, than our capacity to live respectfully together as a unified society, with a full, generous regard for the rights of others and also for the feelings of others. As we recover from the turmoil and violence of recent years, as we learn once again to speak with one another instead of shouting at one another, we are regaining that capacity. As is customary here, on this occasion, I have been talking about programs. Programs are important. But even more important than programs is what we are as a Nation--what we mean as a Nation, to ourselves and to the world. In New York Harbor stands one of the most famous statues in the world--the Statue of Liberty, the gift in 1886 of the people of France to the people of the United States. This statue is more than a landmark; it is a symbol--a symbol of what America has meant to the world. It reminds us that what America has meant is not its wealth, and not its power, but its spirit and purpose--a land that enshrines liberty and opportunity, and that has held out a hand of welcome to millions in search of a better and a fuller and, above all, a freer life. The world's hopes poured into America, along with its people. And those hopes, those dreams, that have been brought here from every corner of the world, have become a part of the hope that we now hold out to the world. Four years from now, America will celebrate the 200th anniversary of its founding as a Nation. There are those who say that the old Spirit of '76 is dead---that we no longer have the strength of character, the idealism, the faith in our founding purposes that that spirit represents. Those who say this do not know America. We have been undergoing self-doubts and self-criticism. But these are only the other side of our growing sensitivity to the persistence of want in the midst of plenty, of our impatience with the slowness with which age-old ills are being overcome. If we were indifferent to the shortcomings of our society, or complacent about our institutions, or blind to the lingering inequities--then we would have lost our way. But the fact that we have those concerns is evidence that our ideals, deep down, are still strong. Indeed, they remind us that what is really best about America is its compassion. They remind us that in the final analysis, America is great not because it is strong, not because it is rich, but because this is a good country. Let us reject the narrow visions of those who would tell us that we are evil because we are not yet perfect, that we are corrupt because we are not yet pure, that all the sweat and toil and sacrifice that have gone into the building of America were for naught because the building is not yet done. Let us see that the path we are traveling is wide, with room in it for all of us, and that its direction is toward a better Nation and a more peaceful world. Never has it mattered more that we go forward together. Look at this Chamber. The leadership of America is here today--the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, the Senate, the House of Representatives. Together, we hold the future of the Nation, and the conscience of the Nation in our hands. Because this year is an election year, it will be a time of great pressure. If we yield to that pressure and fail to deal seriously with the historic challenges that we face, we will have failed the trust of millions of Americans and shaken the confidence they have a right to place in us, in their Government. Never has a Congress had a greater opportunity to leave a legacy of a profound and constructive reform for the Nation than this Congress. If we succeed in these tasks, there will be credit enough for all--not only for doing what is right, but doing it in the right way, by rising above partisan interest to serve the national interest. And if we fail, more than any one of us, America will be the loser. That is why my call upon the Congress today is for a high statesmanship, so that in the years to come Americans will look back and say because it withstood the intense pressures of a political year, and achieved such great good for the American people and for the future of this Nation, this was truly a great Congress.
speaker president my colleagues in the congress our distinguished guests my fellow americans years ago i sat here as a freshman congressman along with speaker albert and listened for the first time to the president address the state of the union i shall never forget that moment the senate the diplomatic corps the supreme court the cabinet entered the chamber and then the president of the united states as all of you are aware i had some differences with president truman he had some with me but i remember that on that day the day he addressed that joint session of the newly elected republican 80th congress he spoke not as a partisan but as president of all the upon the congress to put aside partisan considerations in the national interest the aid program the marshall plan the great foreign policy initiatives which have been responsible for avoiding a world war for over 25 years were approved by the 80th congress by a bipartisan majority of which i was proud to be a part nineteen hundred is now before us it holds precious time in which to accomplish good for the nation we must not waste it i know the political pressures in this session of the congress will be great there are more candidates for the presidency in this chamber today than there probably have been at any one time in the whole history of the republic and there is an honest difference of opinion not only between the parties but within each party on some foreign policy issues and on some domestic policy issues however there are great national problems that are so vital that they transcend partisanship so let us have our debates let us have our honest differences but let us join in keeping the national interest first let us join in making sure that legislation the nation needs does not become hostage to the political interests of any party or any person there is ample precedent in this election year for me to present you with a huge list of new proposals knowing full well that there would not be any possibility of your passing them if you worked night and day i shall not do that i have presented to the leaders of the congress today a message of words discussing in some detail where the nation stands and setting forth specific legislative items on which i have asked the congress to act much of this is legislation which i proposed in 1969 in 1970 and also in the first session of this 92d congress and on which i feel it is essential that action be completed this year i am not presenting proposals which have attractive labels but no hope of passage i am presenting only vital programs which are within the capacity of this congress to enact within the capacity of the budget to finance and which i believe should be above partisanship programs which deal with urgent priorities for the nation which should and must be the subject of bipartisan action by this congress in the interests of the country in 1972 when i took the oath of office on the steps of this building just 3 years ago today the nation was ending one of the most tortured decades in its history the 1960 were a time of great progress in many areas but as we all know they were also times of great agony the agonies of war of inflation of rapidly rising crime of deteriorating titles of hopes raised and disappointed and of anger and frustration that led finally to violence and to the worst civil disorder in a century i recall these troubles not to point any fingers of blame the nation was so torn in those final years of the sixties that many in both parties questioned whether america could be governed at all the nation has made significant progress in these first years of the seventies our cities are no longer engulfed by civil disorders our colleges and universities have again become places of learning instead of battlegrounds a beginning has been made in preserving and protecting our environment the rate of increase in crime has been slowed and here in the district of columbia the one city where the federal government has direct jurisdiction serious crime in 1971 was actually reduced by 13 percent from the year before most important because of the beginnings that have been made we can say today that this year 1972 can be the year in which america may make the greatest progress in 25 years toward achieving our goal of being at peace with all the nations of the world as our involvement in the war in vietnam comes to an end we must now go on to build a generation of peace to achieve that goal we must first face realistically the need to maintain our defense in the past 3 years we have reduced the burden of arms for the first time in 20 years spending on defense has been brought below spending on human resources as we look to the future we find encouraging progress in our negotiations with the soviet union on limitation of strategic arms and looking further into the future we hope there can eventually be agreement on the mutual reduction of arms but until there is such a mutual agreement we must maintain the strength necessary to deter war and that is why because of rising research and development costs because of increases in military and civilian pay because of the need to proceed with new weapons systems my budget for the coming fiscal year will provide for an increase in defense spending strong military defenses are not the enemy of peace they are the guardians of peace there could be no more misguided set of priorities than one which would tempt others by weakening america and thereby endanger the peace of the world in our foreign policy we have entered a new era the world has changed greatly in the 11 years since president john kennedy said in his inaugural address we shall pay any price bear any burden meet any hardship support any friend oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty our policy has been carefully and deliberately adjusted to meet the new realities of the new world we live in we make today only those commitments we are able and prepared to meet our commitment to freedom remains strong and unshakable but others must bear their share of the burden of defending freedom around the world and so this then is our policy we will maintain a nuclear deterrent adequate to meet any threat to the security of the united states or of our allies we will help other nations develop the capability of defending themselves we will faithfully honor all of our treaty commitments we will act to defend our interests whenever and wherever they are threatened anyplace in the world but where our interests or our treaty commitments are not involved our role will be limited we will not intervene militarily but we will use our influence to prevent war if war comes we will use our influence to stop it once it is over we will do our share in helping to bind up the wounds of those who have participated in it as you know i will soon be visiting the people republic of china and the soviet union i go there with no illusions we have great differences with both powers we shall continue to have great differences but peace depends on the ability of great powers to live together on the same planet despite their differences we would not be true to our obligation to generations yet unborn if we failed to seize this moment to do everything in our power to insure that we will be able to talk about those differences rather than to fight about them in the future as we look back over this century let us in the highest spirit of bipartisanship recognize that we can be proud of our nation record in foreign affairs america has given more generously of itself toward maintaining freedom preserving peace alleviating human suffering around the globe than any nation has ever done in the history of man we have fought four wars in this century but our power has never been used to break the peace only to keep it never been used to destroy freedom only to defend it we now have within our reach the goal of insuring that the next generation can be the first generation in this century to be spared the scourges of war turning to our problems at home we are making progress toward our goal of a new prosperity without war industrial production consumer spending retail sales personal income all have been rising total employment real income are the highest in history new home building starts this past year reached the highest level ever business and consumer confidence have both been rising interest rates are down the rate of inflation is down we can look with confidence to 1972 as the year when the back of inflation will be broken now this a good record but it is not good enough not when we still have an unemployment rate of 6 percent it is not enough to point out that this was the rate of the early peacetime years of the sixties or that if the more than 2 million men released from the armed forces and industries were still in their wartime jobs unemployment would be far lower our goal in this country is full employment in peacetime we intend to meet that goal and we can the congress has helped to meet that goal by passing our tax program last month the historic monetary agreements agreements that we have reached with the major european nations canada and japan will help meet it by providing new markets for american products new jobs for american workers our budget will help meet it by being expansionary without being budget that will help take up the gap as the economy expands to full employment our program to raise farm income will help meet it by helping to revitalize rural america by giving to america farmers their fair share of america increasing productivity we also will help meet our goal of full employment in peacetime with a set of major initiatives to stimulate more imaginative use of america great capacity for technological advance and to direct it toward improving the quality of life for every american in reaching the moon we demonstrated what miracles american technology is capable of achieving now the time has come to move more deliberately toward making full use of that technology here on earth of harnessing the wonders of science to the service of man i shall soon send to the congress a special message proposing a new program of federal partnership in technological research and development with federal incentives to increase private research federally supported research on projects designed to improve our everyday lives in ways that will range from improving mass transit to developing new systems of emergency health care that could save thousands of lives annually historically our superior technology and high productivity have made it possible for american workers to be the highest paid in the world by far and yet for our goods still to compete in world markets now we face a new situation as other nations move rapidly forward in technology the answer to the new competition is not to build a wall around america but rather to remain competitive by improving our own technology still further and by increasing productivity in american industry our new monetary and trade agreements will make it possible for american goods to compete fairly in the world markets but they still must compete the new technology program will put to use the skills of many highly trained americans skills that might otherwise be wasted it will also meet the growing technological challenge from abroad and it will thus help to create new industries as well as creating more jobs for america workers in producing for the world markets this second session of the 92d congress already has before it more than 90 major administration proposals which still await action i have discussed these in the extensive written message that i have presented to the congress today they include among others our programs to improve life for the aging to combat crime and drug abuse to improve health services and to ensure that no one will be denied needed health care because of inability to pay to protect workers pension rights to promote equal opportunity for members of minorities and others who have been left behind to expand consumer protection to improve the environment to revitalize rural america to help the cities to launch new initiatives in education to improve transportation and to put an end to costly labor in transportation the west coast dock strike is a case in point this nation can not and will not tolerate that kind of irresponsible labor in the future the messages also include basic reforms which are essential if our structure of government is to be adequate in the decades ahead they include reform of our wasteful and outmoded welfare system substitution of a new system that provides work requirements and work incentives for those who can help themselves income support for those who can not help themselves and fairness to the working poor they include a 17 billion program of federal revenue sharing with the states and localities as an investment in their renewal an investment also of faith in the american people they also include a sweeping reorganization of the executive branch of the federal government so that it will be more efficient more responsive and able to meet the challenges of the decades ahead one year ago standing in this place i laid before the opening session of this congress six great goals one of these was welfare reform that proposal has been before the congress now for nearly 2 years my proposals on revenue sharing government reorganization health care and the environment have now been before the congress for nearly a year many of the other major proposals that i have referred to have been here that long or longer now 1971 we can say was a year of consideration of these measures now let us join in making 1972 a year of action on them action by the congress for the nation and for the people of america now in addition there is one pressing need which i have not previously covered but which must be placed on the national agenda we long have looked in this nation to the local property tax as the main source of financing for public primary and secondary education as a result soaring school costs soaring property tax rates now threaten both our communities and our schools they threaten communities because property taxes which more than doubled in the 10 years from 1960 to have become one of the most oppressive and discriminatory of all taxes hitting most cruelly at the elderly and the retired and they threaten schools as voters understandably reject new bond issues at the polls the problem has been given even greater urgency by four recent court decisions which have held that the conventional method of financing schools through local property taxes is discriminatory and unconstitutional nearly 2 years ago i named a special presidential commission to study the problems of school finance and i also directed the federal departments to look into the same problems we are developing comprehensive proposals to meet these problems this issue involves two complex and interrelated sets of problems support of the schools and the basic relationships of federal state and local governments in any tax reforms under the leadership of the secretary of the treasury we are carefully reviewing all of the tax aspects and i have this week enlisted the advisory commission on intergovernmental relations in addressing the intergovernmental relations aspects i have asked this bipartisan commission to review our proposals for federal action to cope with the gathering crisis of school finance and property taxes later in the year when both commissions have completed their studies i shall make my final recommendations for relieving the burden of property taxes and providing both fair and adequate financing for our children education these recommendations will be revolutionary but all these recommendations however will be rooted in one fundamental principle with which there can be no compromise local school boards must have control over local schools as we look ahead over the coming decades vast new growth and change are not only certainties they will be the dominant reality of this world and particularly of our life in america surveying the certainty of rapid change we can be like a fallen rider caught in the stirrups r we can sit high in the saddle the masters of change directing it on a course we choose the secret of mastering change in today world is to reach back to old and proven principles and to adapt them with imagination and intelligence to the new realities of a new age that is what we have done in the proposals that i have laid before the congress they are rooted in basic principles that are as enduring as human nature as robust as the american experience and they are responsive to new conditions thus they represent a spirit of change that is truly renewal as we look back at those old principles we find them as timely as they are timeless we believe in independence and and the creative value of the competitive spirit we believe in full and equal opportunity for all americans and in the protection of individual rights and liberties we believe in the family as the keystone of the community and in the community as the keystone of the nation we believe in compassion toward those in need we believe in a system of law justice and order as the basis of a genuinely free society we believe that a person should get what he works for and that those who can should work for what they get we believe in the capacity of people to make their own decisions in their own lives in their own communities and we believe in their right to make those decisions in applying these principles we have done so with the full understanding that what we seek in the seventies what our quest is is not merely for more but for better for a better quality of life for all americans thus for example we are giving a new measure of attention to cleaning up our air and water making our surroundings more attractive we are providing broader support for the arts helping stimulate a deeper appreciation of what they can contribute to the nation activities and to our individual lives but nothing really matters more to the quality of our lives than the way we treat one another than our capacity to live respectfully together as a unified society with a full generous regard for the rights of others and also for the feelings of others as we recover from the turmoil and violence of recent years as we learn once again to speak with one another instead of shouting at one another we are regaining that capacity as is customary here on this occasion i have been talking about programs programs are important but even more important than programs is what we are as a nation what we mean as a nation to ourselves and to the world in new york harbor stands one of the most famous statues in the world the statue of liberty the gift in 1886 of the people of france to the people of the united states this statue is more than a landmark it is a symbol a symbol of what america has meant to the world it reminds us that what america has meant is not its wealth and not its power but its spirit and purpose a land that enshrines liberty and opportunity and that has held out a hand of welcome to millions in search of a better and a fuller and above all a freer life the world hopes poured into america along with its people and those hopes those dreams that have been brought here from every corner of the world have become a part of the hope that we now hold out to the world four years from now america will celebrate the 200th anniversary of its founding as a nation there are those who say that the old spirit of is dead we no longer have the strength of character the idealism the faith in our founding purposes that that spirit represents those who say this do not know america we have been undergoing and but these are only the other side of our growing sensitivity to the persistence of want in the midst of plenty of our impatience with the slowness with which ills are being overcome if we were indifferent to the shortcomings of our society or complacent about our institutions or blind to the lingering inequities then we would have lost our way but the fact that we have those concerns is evidence that our ideals deep down are still strong indeed they remind us that what is really best about america is its compassion they remind us that in the final analysis america is great not because it is strong not because it is rich but because this is a good country let us reject the narrow visions of those who would tell us that we are evil because we are not yet perfect that we are corrupt because we are not yet pure that all the sweat and toil and sacrifice that have gone into the building of america were for naught because the building is not yet done let us see that the path we are traveling is wide with room in it for all of us and that its direction is toward a better nation and a more peaceful world never has it mattered more that we go forward together look at this chamber the leadership of america is here today the supreme court the cabinet the senate the house of representatives together we hold the future of the nation and the conscience of the nation in our hands because this year is an election year it will be a time of great pressure if we yield to that pressure and fail to deal seriously with the historic challenges that we face we will have failed the trust of millions of americans and shaken the confidence they have a right to place in us in their government never has a congress had a greater opportunity to leave a legacy of a profound and constructive reform for the nation than this congress if we succeed in these tasks there will be credit enough for all not only for doing what is right but doing it in the right way by rising above partisan interest to serve the national interest and if we fail more than any one of us america will be the loser that is why my call upon the congress today is for a high statesmanship so that in the years to come americans will look back and say because it withstood the intense pressures of a political year and achieved such great good for the american people and for the future of this nation this was truly a great congress
speaker president colleagues congress distinguished guests fellow americans years ago sat freshman congressman along speaker albert listened first time president address state union shall never forget moment senate diplomatic corps supreme court cabinet entered chamber president united states aware differences president truman remember day day addressed joint session newly elected republican 80th congress spoke partisan president upon congress put aside partisan considerations national interest aid program marshall plan great foreign policy initiatives responsible avoiding world war 25 years approved 80th congress bipartisan majority proud part nineteen hundred us holds precious time accomplish good nation must waste know political pressures session congress great candidates presidency chamber today probably one time whole history republic honest difference opinion parties within party foreign policy issues domestic policy issues however great national problems vital transcend partisanship let us debates let us honest differences let us join keeping national interest first let us join making sure legislation nation needs become hostage political interests party person ample precedent election year present huge list new proposals knowing full well would possibility passing worked night day shall presented leaders congress today message words discussing detail nation stands setting forth specific legislative items asked congress act much legislation proposed 1969 1970 also first session 92d congress feel essential action completed year presenting proposals attractive labels hope passage presenting vital programs within capacity congress enact within capacity budget finance believe partisanship programs deal urgent priorities nation must subject bipartisan action congress interests country 1972 took oath office steps building 3 years ago today nation ending one tortured decades history 1960 time great progress many areas know also times great agony agonies war inflation rapidly rising crime deteriorating titles hopes raised disappointed anger frustration led finally violence worst civil disorder century recall troubles point fingers blame nation torn final years sixties many parties questioned whether america could governed nation made significant progress first years seventies cities longer engulfed civil disorders colleges universities become places learning instead battlegrounds beginning made preserving protecting environment rate increase crime slowed district columbia one city federal government direct jurisdiction serious crime 1971 actually reduced 13 percent year important beginnings made say today year 1972 year america may make greatest progress 25 years toward achieving goal peace nations world involvement war vietnam comes end must go build generation peace achieve goal must first face realistically need maintain defense past 3 years reduced burden arms first time 20 years spending defense brought spending human resources look future find encouraging progress negotiations soviet union limitation strategic arms looking future hope eventually agreement mutual reduction arms mutual agreement must maintain strength necessary deter war rising research development costs increases military civilian pay need proceed new weapons systems budget coming fiscal year provide increase defense spending strong military defenses enemy peace guardians peace could misguided set priorities one would tempt others weakening america thereby endanger peace world foreign policy entered new era world changed greatly 11 years since president john kennedy said inaugural address shall pay price bear burden meet hardship support friend oppose foe assure survival success liberty policy carefully deliberately adjusted meet new realities new world live make today commitments able prepared meet commitment freedom remains strong unshakable others must bear share burden defending freedom around world policy maintain nuclear deterrent adequate meet threat security united states allies help nations develop capability defending faithfully honor treaty commitments act defend interests whenever wherever threatened anyplace world interests treaty commitments involved role limited intervene militarily use influence prevent war war comes use influence stop share helping bind wounds participated know soon visiting people republic china soviet union go illusions great differences powers shall continue great differences peace depends ability great powers live together planet despite differences would true obligation generations yet unborn failed seize moment everything power insure able talk differences rather fight future look back century let us highest spirit bipartisanship recognize proud nation record foreign affairs america given generously toward maintaining freedom preserving peace alleviating human suffering around globe nation ever done history man fought four wars century power never used break peace keep never used destroy freedom defend within reach goal insuring next generation first generation century spared scourges war turning problems home making progress toward goal new prosperity without war industrial production consumer spending retail sales personal income rising total employment real income highest history new home building starts past year reached highest level ever business consumer confidence rising interest rates rate inflation look confidence 1972 year back inflation broken good record good enough still unemployment rate 6 percent enough point rate early peacetime years sixties 2 million men released armed forces industries still wartime jobs unemployment would far lower goal country full employment peacetime intend meet goal congress helped meet goal passing tax program last month historic monetary agreements agreements reached major european nations canada japan help meet providing new markets american products new jobs american workers budget help meet expansionary without budget help take gap economy expands full employment program raise farm income help meet helping revitalize rural america giving america farmers fair share america increasing productivity also help meet goal full employment peacetime set major initiatives stimulate imaginative use america great capacity technological advance direct toward improving quality life every american reaching moon demonstrated miracles american technology capable achieving time come move deliberately toward making full use technology earth harnessing wonders science service man shall soon send congress special message proposing new program federal partnership technological research development federal incentives increase private research federally supported research projects designed improve everyday lives ways range improving mass transit developing new systems emergency health care could save thousands lives annually historically superior technology high productivity made possible american workers highest paid world far yet goods still compete world markets face new situation nations move rapidly forward technology answer new competition build wall around america rather remain competitive improving technology still increasing productivity american industry new monetary trade agreements make possible american goods compete fairly world markets still must compete new technology program put use skills many highly trained americans skills might otherwise wasted also meet growing technological challenge abroad thus help create new industries well creating jobs america workers producing world markets second session 92d congress already 90 major administration proposals still await action discussed extensive written message presented congress today include among others programs improve life aging combat crime drug abuse improve health services ensure one denied needed health care inability pay protect workers pension rights promote equal opportunity members minorities others left behind expand consumer protection improve environment revitalize rural america help cities launch new initiatives education improve transportation put end costly labor transportation west coast dock strike case point nation tolerate kind irresponsible labor future messages also include basic reforms essential structure government adequate decades ahead include reform wasteful outmoded welfare system substitution new system provides work requirements work incentives help income support help fairness working poor include 17 billion program federal revenue sharing states localities investment renewal investment also faith american people also include sweeping reorganization executive branch federal government efficient responsive able meet challenges decades ahead one year ago standing place laid opening session congress six great goals one welfare reform proposal congress nearly 2 years proposals revenue sharing government reorganization health care environment congress nearly year many major proposals referred long longer 1971 say year consideration measures let us join making 1972 year action action congress nation people america addition one pressing need previously covered must placed national agenda long looked nation local property tax main source financing public primary secondary education result soaring school costs soaring property tax rates threaten communities schools threaten communities property taxes doubled 10 years 1960 become one oppressive discriminatory taxes hitting cruelly elderly retired threaten schools voters understandably reject new bond issues polls problem given even greater urgency four recent court decisions held conventional method financing schools local property taxes discriminatory unconstitutional nearly 2 years ago named special presidential commission study problems school finance also directed federal departments look problems developing comprehensive proposals meet problems issue involves two complex interrelated sets problems support schools basic relationships federal state local governments tax reforms leadership secretary treasury carefully reviewing tax aspects week enlisted advisory commission intergovernmental relations addressing intergovernmental relations aspects asked bipartisan commission review proposals federal action cope gathering crisis school finance property taxes later year commissions completed studies shall make final recommendations relieving burden property taxes providing fair adequate financing children education recommendations revolutionary recommendations however rooted one fundamental principle compromise local school boards must control local schools look ahead coming decades vast new growth change certainties dominant reality world particularly life america surveying certainty rapid change like fallen rider caught stirrups r sit high saddle masters change directing course choose secret mastering change today world reach back old proven principles adapt imagination intelligence new realities new age done proposals laid congress rooted basic principles enduring human nature robust american experience responsive new conditions thus represent spirit change truly renewal look back old principles find timely timeless believe independence creative value competitive spirit believe full equal opportunity americans protection individual rights liberties believe family keystone community community keystone nation believe compassion toward need believe system law justice order basis genuinely free society believe person get works work get believe capacity people make decisions lives communities believe right make decisions applying principles done full understanding seek seventies quest merely better better quality life americans thus example giving new measure attention cleaning air water making surroundings attractive providing broader support arts helping stimulate deeper appreciation contribute nation activities individual lives nothing really matters quality lives way treat one another capacity live respectfully together unified society full generous regard rights others also feelings others recover turmoil violence recent years learn speak one another instead shouting one another regaining capacity customary occasion talking programs programs important even important programs nation mean nation world new york harbor stands one famous statues world statue liberty gift 1886 people france people united states statue landmark symbol symbol america meant world reminds us america meant wealth power spirit purpose land enshrines liberty opportunity held hand welcome millions search better fuller freer life world hopes poured america along people hopes dreams brought every corner world become part hope hold world four years america celebrate 200th anniversary founding nation say old spirit dead longer strength character idealism faith founding purposes spirit represents say know america undergoing side growing sensitivity persistence want midst plenty impatience slowness ills overcome indifferent shortcomings society complacent institutions blind lingering inequities would lost way fact concerns evidence ideals deep still strong indeed remind us really best america compassion remind us final analysis america great strong rich good country let us reject narrow visions would tell us evil yet perfect corrupt yet pure sweat toil sacrifice gone building america naught building yet done let us see path traveling wide room us direction toward better nation peaceful world never mattered go forward together look chamber leadership america today supreme court cabinet senate house representatives together hold future nation conscience nation hands year election year time great pressure yield pressure fail deal seriously historic challenges face failed trust millions americans shaken confidence right place us government never congress greater opportunity leave legacy profound constructive reform nation congress succeed tasks credit enough right right way rising partisan interest serve national interest fail one us america loser call upon congress today high statesmanship years come americans look back say withstood intense pressures political year achieved great good american people future nation truly great congress
speaker president colleague congress distinguished guest fellow american year ago sit freshman congressman along speaker albert listen first time president address state union shall never forget moment senate diplomatic corp supreme court cabinet enter chamber president united state aware difference president truman remember day day address joint session newly elect republican 80th congress speak partisan president upon congress put aside partisan consideration national interest aid program marshall plan great foreign policy initiative responsible avoiding world war 25 year approve 80th congress bipartisan majority proud part nineteen hundred u hold precious time accomplish good nation must waste know political pressure session congress great candidate presidency chamber today probably one time whole history republic honest difference opinion party within party foreign policy issue domestic policy issue however great national problem vital transcend partisanship let u debate let u honest difference let u join keep national interest first let u join make sure legislation nation need become hostage political interest party person ample precedent election year present huge list new proposal know full well would possibility passing work night day shall present leader congress today message word discuss detail nation stand set forth specific legislative item ask congress act much legislation propose 1969 1970 also first session 92d congress feel essential action complete year present proposal attractive label hope passage present vital program within capacity congress enact within capacity budget finance believe partisanship program deal urgent priority nation must subject bipartisan action congress interest country 1972 take oath office step build 3 year ago today nation end one tortured decade history 1960 time great progress many area know also times great agony agony war inflation rapidly rise crime deteriorate title hope raise disappointed anger frustration lead finally violence bad civil disorder century recall trouble point finger blame nation tear final year sixties many party question whether america could govern nation make significant progress first year seventies city longer engulf civil disorder college university become place learn instead battleground begin make preserve protect environment rate increase crime slow district columbia one city federal government direct jurisdiction serious crime 1971 actually reduce 13 percent year important beginning make say today year 1972 year america may make great progress 25 year toward achieve goal peace nation world involvement war vietnam come end must go build generation peace achieve goal must first face realistically need maintain defense past 3 year reduce burden arm first time 20 year spend defense bring spending human resource look future find encouraging progress negotiation soviet union limitation strategic arm look future hope eventually agreement mutual reduction arm mutual agreement must maintain strength necessary deter war rise research development cost increase military civilian pay need proceed new weapon system budget come fiscal year provide increase defense spending strong military defense enemy peace guardian peace could misguide set priority one would tempt others weaken america thereby endanger peace world foreign policy enter new era world change greatly 11 year since president john kennedy say inaugural address shall pay price bear burden meet hardship support friend oppose foe assure survival success liberty policy carefully deliberately adjust meet new reality new world live make today commitment able prepared meet commitment freedom remain strong unshakable others must bear share burden defending freedom around world policy maintain nuclear deterrent adequate meet threat security united state ally help nation develop capability defend faithfully honor treaty commitment act defend interest whenever wherever threaten anyplace world interest treaty commitment involve role limited intervene militarily use influence prevent war war come use influence stop share help bind wound participate know soon visit people republic china soviet union go illusion great difference power shall continue great difference peace depend ability great power live together planet despite difference would true obligation generation yet unborn fail seize moment everything power insure able talk difference rather fight future look back century let u high spirit bipartisanship recognize proud nation record foreign affair america give generously toward maintain freedom preserve peace alleviate human suffer around globe nation ever do history man fight four war century power never use break peace keep never use destroy freedom defend within reach goal insure next generation first generation century spar scourge war turn problem home make progress toward goal new prosperity without war industrial production consumer spending retail sale personal income rise total employment real income high history new home building start past year reach high level ever business consumer confidence rise interest rate rate inflation look confidence 1972 year back inflation break good record good enough still unemployment rate 6 percent enough point rate early peacetime year sixties 2 million men release armed force industry still wartime job unemployment would far low goal country full employment peacetime intend meet goal congress help meet goal pass tax program last month historic monetary agreement agreement reach major european nation canada japan help meet provide new market american product new job american worker budget help meet expansionary without budget help take gap economy expand full employment program raise farm income help meet help revitalize rural america give america farmer fair share america increase productivity also help meet goal full employment peacetime set major initiative stimulate imaginative use america great capacity technological advance direct toward improve quality life every american reaching moon demonstrate miracle american technology capable achieve time come move deliberately toward make full use technology earth harness wonder science service man shall soon send congress special message propose new program federal partnership technological research development federal incentive increase private research federally support research project design improve everyday life way range improve mass transit develop new system emergency health care could save thousand live annually historically superior technology high productivity make possible american worker high pay world far yet good still compete world market face new situation nation move rapidly forward technology answer new competition build wall around america rather remain competitive improving technology still increase productivity american industry new monetary trade agreement make possible american good compete fairly world market still must compete new technology program put use skill many highly trained american skill might otherwise waste also meet grow technological challenge abroad thus help create new industry well create job america worker produce world market second session 92d congress already 90 major administration proposal still await action discuss extensive write message present congress today include among others program improve life age combat crime drug abuse improve health service ensure one deny need health care inability pay protect worker pension right promote equal opportunity member minorities others leave behind expand consumer protection improve environment revitalize rural america help city launch new initiative education improve transportation put end costly labor transportation west coast dock strike case point nation tolerate kind irresponsible labor future message also include basic reform essential structure government adequate decade ahead include reform wasteful outmode welfare system substitution new system provide work requirement work incentive help income support help fairness work poor include 17 billion program federal revenue share state locality investment renewal investment also faith american people also include sweep reorganization executive branch federal government efficient responsive able meet challenge decade ahead one year ago stand place lay open session congress six great goal one welfare reform proposal congress nearly 2 year proposal revenue share government reorganization health care environment congress nearly year many major proposal refer long longer 1971 say year consideration measure let u join make 1972 year action action congress nation people america addition one press need previously cover must place national agenda long look nation local property tax main source finance public primary secondary education result soar school cost soar property tax rate threaten community school threaten community property tax double 10 year 1960 become one oppressive discriminatory tax hit cruelly elderly retire threaten school voter understandably reject new bond issue poll problem give even great urgency four recent court decision hold conventional method financing school local property tax discriminatory unconstitutional nearly 2 year ago name special presidential commission study problem school finance also direct federal department look problem develop comprehensive proposal meet problem issue involve two complex interrelate set problem support school basic relationship federal state local government tax reform leadership secretary treasury carefully review tax aspect week enlist advisory commission intergovernmental relation address intergovernmental relation aspect ask bipartisan commission review proposal federal action cope gathering crisis school finance property tax later year commission complete study shall make final recommendation relieve burden property tax provide fair adequate financing child education recommendation revolutionary recommendation however root one fundamental principle compromise local school board must control local school look ahead come decade vast new growth change certainty dominant reality world particularly life america survey certainty rapid change like fall rider caught stirrup r sit high saddle master change direct course choose secret mastering change today world reach back old proven principle adapt imagination intelligence new reality new age do proposal lay congress root basic principle endure human nature robust american experience responsive new condition thus represent spirit change truly renewal look back old principle find timely timeless believe independence creative value competitive spirit believe full equal opportunity americans protection individual right liberty believe family keystone community community keystone nation believe compassion toward need believe system law justice order basis genuinely free society believe person get work work get believe capacity people make decision life community believe right make decision apply principle do full understanding seek seventy quest merely well good quality life american thus example give new measure attention clean air water make surroundings attractive provide broad support art help stimulate deep appreciation contribute nation activity individual live nothing really matter quality live way treat one another capacity live respectfully together unified society full generous regard right others also feelings others recover turmoil violence recent year learn speak one another instead shout one another regaining capacity customary occasion talk program program important even important program nation mean nation world new york harbor stand one famous statue world statue liberty gift 1886 people france people united state statue landmark symbol symbol america mean world remind u america mean wealth power spirit purpose land enshrines liberty opportunity hold hand welcome million search good fuller freer life world hop pour america along people hope dream bring every corner world become part hope hold world four year america celebrate 200th anniversary founding nation say old spirit dead long strength character idealism faith founding purpose spirit represent say know america undergoing side grow sensitivity persistence want midst plenty impatience slowness ills overcome indifferent shortcoming society complacent institution blind linger inequity would lose way fact concern evidence ideal deep still strong indeed remind u really best america compassion remind u final analysis america great strong rich good country let u reject narrow vision would tell u evil yet perfect corrupt yet pure sweat toil sacrifice go building america naught building yet do let u see path travel wide room u direction toward good nation peaceful world never matter go forward together look chamber leadership america today supreme court cabinet senate house representative together hold future nation conscience nation hand year election year time great pressure yield pressure fail deal seriously historic challenge face fail trust million american shake confidence right place u government never congress great opportunity leave legacy profound constructive reform nation congress succeed task credit enough right right way rise partisan interest serve national interest fail one u america loser call upon congress today high statesmanship year come american look back say withstood intense pressure political year achieve great good american people future nation truly great congress