Speech Transcript:

 Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the 103rd Congress, my fellow
Americans:

As we gather to review the State of the Union, I recall the memory of
the giant who presided in this Chamber with such force and grace. Tip
O'Neill liked to call himself "a man of the House." And he surely was
that. But -- even more -- he was a man of the people, a bricklayer's
son who helped build the American middle class. Tip O'Neill never
forgot who he was, where he came from, or who sent him here.

We too must remember who we are, where we come from, and who sent us
here.

We must return to the principle that if we give ordinary people equal
opportunity, quality education, and a fair shot at the American dream,
they will do extraordinary things.

We gather tonight in a world of changes so profound and rapid that
all nations are tested.

Our American heritage has always been to master change, to expand
opportunity at home, and provide leadership abroad.

But for too long, and in too many ways, that heritage was abandoned,
and our country drifted.

For thirty years, family life in America has been breaking down. For
twenty years, the wages of working families have been stagnant, or
declining. For twelve years of trickle-down economics, we tried to
build a false prosperity on a hollow base. Our national debt
quadrupled. From 1989 to 1992, we experienced the slowest growth in a
half century.

For too many families, even when both parents are working, the
American dream has been slipping away.

In 1992, the American people demanded change. One year ago I asked
you to join me and accept responsibility for the future of our
country. Well, we did. We replaced drift and deadlock with renewal
and reform.

I want to thank all of you who heard the American people, broke
gridlock, and gave them the most successful teamwork between a
President and a Congress for thirty years.

This Congress produced:

    * A budget that cut the deficit by half a trillion dollars, cut
spending and raised income taxes only on the very wealthiest
Americans.
    * Tax relief for millions of low income workers to reward work
over welfare.
    * NAFTA.
    * The Brady bill . . . which is now the Brady law.
    * Tax cuts to help nine out of ten small businesses invest more
and create jobs.
    * More research and treatment for AIDS.
    * More childhood immunizations.
    * More support for women's health research.
    * More affordable college loans for the middle class.
    * A new national service program for those who want to give
something back to their community and earn money for higher
education.
    * A dramatic increase in high tech investments to move us from a
defense to a domestic economy.
    * A new law, the Motor Voter bill, to help millions of people
register to vote.
    * Family and Medical Leave.

All passed. All signed into law with no vetoes. These accomplishments
were all commitments I made when I sought this office, and they were
all passed by this Congress. But the real credit belongs to the
people who sent us here, pay our salaries, and hold our feet to the
fire.

What we do here is really beginning to change lives. I will never
forget what Family and Medical Leave meant to one father who brought
his little girl to visit the White House last year. After we talked
and took a picture, he held on to my arm and said, "my little girl is
really sick, and she's probably not going to make it. But because of
the Family and Medical Leave law I can take time off without losing
my job. I have had some precious time with my child, the most
important time I have ever had, without hurting the rest of my
family. Don't you ever think that what you do up here doesn't make a
difference."

Though we are making a difference, our work has just begun. Many
Americans still haven't felt the impact of what we have done. The
recovery has still not touched every community or created enough
jobs. Incomes are still stagnant. There is still too much violence
and not enough hope. And abroad, the young democracies we support
still face difficult times and look to us for leadership.

And so tonight, let us continue our journey of renewal: to create
more and better jobs, guarantee health security for all, reward work
over welfare, promote democracy abroad, and begin to reclaim our
streets from violent crime and drugs, and renew our own American
community.

Last year, we began to put our house in order by tackling the budget
deficit that was driving us toward bankruptcy.

We cut $255 billion dollars in spending, including entitlements, and
over 340 budget items. We froze domestic spending, and used honest
numbers.

Led by the Vice President, we launched a campaign to reinvent
government. We cut staff, cut perks, and trimmed the fleet of federal
limousines. After years of leaders whose rhetoric attacked
bureaucracy, but whose actions expanded it, we will actually reduce
it, by 252,000 over five years. By the time we have finished, the
federal bureaucracy will be at its lowest level in thirty years.

Because the deficit was so large and because they had benefitted from
tax cuts in the 1980s, we asked the wealthy to pay more to reduce the
deficit. So April 15th, the American people will discover the truth
about what we did last year on taxes. Only the top 1.2% of Americans
will face higher income tax rates. Let me repeat: Only the wealthiest
1.2% of Americans will face higher income tax rates, and no one else
will.

The naysayers said our plan wouldn't work. Well, they were wrong.

When I became President, the experts predicted next year's deficit
would be $300 billion. But because we acted, the deficit is now going
to be less than $180 billion -- forty percent lower than predicted.

Our economic program has helped to produce the lowest core inflation
rate and the lowest interest rates in twenty years. And because those
interest rates are down, business investment in equipment is growing
at seven times the pace of the previous four years. Auto sales are
way up. Home sales are at a record high. Millions have refinanced
their homes. And our economy has produced 1.6 million private sector
jobs in 1993 -- more than were created in the previous four years
combined. The people who supported this economic plan should be proud
of its first results.

But there's much more to do.

Next month, I will send you the one of the toughest budgets ever
presented to Congress.

It will cut spending in more than 300 programs, eliminate 100
domestic programs, and reform the way government buys its goods and
services. This year, we must make the hard choices again to live
within the hard spending ceilings we have set.

We have proved we can bring down the deficit without choking off the
recovery, without punishing seniors or the middle class, and without
putting our national security at risk. If you will stick with our
plan, we will post three consecutive years of declining deficits for
the first time since Harry Truman lived in the White House. Once
again, the buck stops here.

Our economic plan also bolsters America's strength and credibility
around the world.

Once we reduced the deficit, and put the steel back in our
competitive edge, the world echoed with the sound of falling trade
barriers.

In one year, with NAFTA, GATT, our efforts in Asia, and the National
Export strategy, we did more to open world markets to American
products than at any time over the last two generations. That will
mean more jobs and rising living standards for the American people.

Low deficits, low inflation, low interest rates, low trade barriers
and high investment -- these are the building blocks of our recovery.
But if we want to take full advantage of the opportunities before us
in the global economy, we must do more.

As we reduce defense spending, I ask Congress to invest more in the
technologies of tomorrow. Defense conversion will keep us strong
militarily and create jobs.

As we protect our environment, we must invest in the environmental
technologies of the future which will create jobs. And this year we
will fight for a revitalized Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water
Act, and a reformed Superfund program.

And the Vice President is right: We must work with the private sector
to connect every classroom, every clinic, every library, and every
hospital in America to a national information superhighway by the
year 2000. Instant access to information will increase productivity,
help educate our children, and provide better medical care and create
jobs, I call on Congress this year to pass legislation to establish
the information superhighway.

As we expand opportunity and create jobs, no one can be left out. We
will continue to enforce fair lending and fair housing and all civil
rights laws, because America will never complete its renewal unless
everyone shares in its bounty.

We can do all these things, put our economic house in order, expand
world trade, and target the jobs of the future. And we will. But
let's be honest: this strategy cannot work unless we also give our
people the education, training and skills they need to seize the
opportunities of tomorrow.

We must set tough, world-class academic and occupational standards
for all of our children -- and give our teachers and students the
tools to meet them. Our Goals 2000 proposal will empower individual
school districts to experiment with ideas like chartering their
schools to be run by private corporations, public school choice -- so
long as we measure every school by one high standard: Are our children
learning what they need to know to compete and win in this new
economy. Goals 2000 links world class standards to grass roots
reforms. Congress should pass it without delay.

Our school-to-work initiative will for the first time link schools to
the world of work, and will provide at least one year of
apprenticeship beyond high school. After all, most of the people
we're counting on to build our economic future do not graduate from
college. It's time to stop ignoring them and start empowering them.

We must transform America's outdated unemployment system into a
reemployment system. The old system just kept you going while you
waited for your old job to come back; but we have to have a new
system to move people into new and better jobs, because most people
don't get their old jobs back.

The only way to get a real job with a growing income is to have real
skills and the ability to learn new ones. We simply must streamline
today's patchwork of training programs and make them a source of new
skills for people who lose their jobs. Reemployment, not
unemployment, will be the centerpiece of our program for economic
renewal, and I urge you to pass it this year.

Just as we must transform our unemployment system, we must also
revolutionize our welfare system. It doesn't work. It defies our
values as a nation.

If we value work, we cannot justify a system that makes welfare more
attractive than work.

If we value personal responsibility, we cannot ignore the $34 billion
in child support that absent parents ought to be paying to millions of
mothers and children.

If we value strong families, we cannot perpetuate a system that
penalizes those who stay together. Can you believe that a child who
has a child gets more money from the government for leaving home than
for staying with a parent or a grandparent?

That's not just bad policy; it is wrong. And we must change it.

I worked for years on this welfare problem, and I can tell you: the
people who most want to change welfare are the very people on it.
They want to get off welfare, and get back to work, and support their
children.

Last year, we began. We gave the states more power to innovate --
because we know that great ideas can come from outside Washington --
and many states are using it.

Then, we took a dramatic step. Instead of taxing people with modest
incomes who are working their way out of poverty, we dramatically
increased the Earned Income Tax Credit to lift them out of poverty,
to reward work over welfare, to make it possible for people to be
successful workers and successful parents.

But there is much more to be done.

This spring, I will send you comprehensive welfare reform legislation
that builds on the Family Support Act and restores the basic values of
work and responsibility.

We will say to teenagers, "If you have a child out of wedlock, we
will no longer give you a check to set up a separate household. We
want families to stay together."

To absent parents who aren't paying child support, we'll say: "If
you're not providing for your children, we'll garnish your wages,
we'll suspend your license, we'll track you across state lines, and
if necessary, we'll make some of you work off what you owe. People
who bring children into this world can't just walk away."

And to all those who depend on welfare, we offer this simple compact:
We will provide the support, the job training, the child care you need
for up to two years. But after that, anyone who can work must work --
in the private sector if possible, in community service if necessary.
We will make welfare what it ought to be: A second chance, not a way
of life.

We must tackle welfare reform in 1994, yes, as we tackle health care.
A million people are on welfare today are there because it's the only
way they can get health care coverage. Those who choose leave welfare
for jobs without health benefits find themselves in the incredible
position of paying taxes that help pay for health coverage for those
who choose to stay on welfare. No wonder many people leave work and
go back on welfare to get health care coverage. We must solve the
health care problem to solve the welfare problem.

This year, we will make history by reforming our health care system.
This is another issue where the people are way ahead of the
politicians.

The First Lady has received almost a million letters from people all
across America and all walks of life. Let me share one of them with
you.

Richard Anderson of Reno, Nevada lost his job and, with it, his
health insurance. Two weeks later, his wife Judy suffered a cerebral
aneurysm. He rushed her to the hospital, where she stayed in
intensive care for twenty-one days.

The Anderson's bills exceeded $120,000. Although Judy recovered and
Richard went back to work, at eight dollars an hour, the bills were
too much for them. They were forced into bankruptcy by high medical
costs.

"Mrs. Clinton," he wrote to Hillary, "no one in the United States of
America should have to lose everything they have worked for all their
lives because they were unfortunate enough to become ill."

It was to help the Richard and Judy Andersons of America that the
First Lady and so many others have worked so hard on the health care
issue, and we owe them our thanks.

There are others in Washington who say there is no health care
crisis. Tell that to Richard and Judy Anderson. Tell it to the 58
million Americans who have no coverage at all for some time each year
that there is no health care crisis. Tell it to the 81 million
Americans with "pre-existing" conditions who are paying more, can't
get insurance, or can't change jobs. Tell it to the small businesses
burdened by the skyrocketing cost of insurance. Tell it to the 76
percent of insured Americans whose policies have lifetime limits --
and who can find themselves without any coverage just when they need
it most -- tell them there is no health care crisis. You tell them .
. . because I can't.

The naysayers don't understand the impact of this problem on people's
lives. They just don't get it. We must act now to show that we do.

From the day we began, our health care initiative has been designed
to strengthen all that is good about our health care system. The
world's best health professionals. Cutting-edge research and research
institutions. Medicare for older Americans. None of this should be put
at risk.

We're paying more and more money for less and less care. Every year
fewer and fewer Americans even get to choose their doctors. Every
year doctors and nurses spend more time on paperwork and less on
patients because of the bureaucratic nightmare the present system has
become. The system is riddled with inefficiency, abuse and fraud.

In today's health care system, insurance companies call all the
shots. They pick and choose whom they cover. They can cut off your
benefits when you need your coverage most. They are in charge.

And so every night, millions of well-insured Americans go to bed just
an illness, an accident, or a pink slip away from financial ruin.
Every morning millions more go to work without health insurance for
their families. And every year, hard- working people are told to pick
a new doctor because their boss picked a new plan, and countless
others turn down better jobs because they fear losing their
insurance.

If we let the health care system continue to drift, Americans will
have less care, fewer choices, and higher bills. Our approach
protects the quality of care and people's choices.

It builds on what works today in the private sector. To expand the
employer-based system and guarantee private insurance for every
American -- something proposed by President Richard Nixon more than
twenty years ago. That's what we want: guaranteed private insurance.

Right now, nine out of ten people who have private insurance get it
through employers -- and that must continue. And if your employer is
providing good benefits at reasonable prices -- that must continue,
too.

Our goal is health insurance you can depend on: comprehensive
benefits that cover preventive care and prescription drugs; health
premiums that don't jump when you get sick or get older; the power,
no matter how small your business is, to choose dependable insurance
at the same rates government and big companies get; one simple form
for people who are sick; and, most of all, the freedom to choose a
health plan and the right to choose your own doctor.

Our approach protects older Americans. Every plan before Congress
proposes to slow the growth of Medicare. The difference is this: We
believe those savings should be used to improve health care for
senior citizens. Medicare must be protected, and it should cover
prescription drugs. And we should take the first steps toward
covering long-term care. To those who would cut Medicare without
protecting seniors, I say: the solution to today's squeeze on
middle-class working people is not to put the squeeze on middle class
retired people.

When it's all said and done, insurance must mean what it used to
mean. You pay a fair price for security and, when you get sick,
health care is always there. No matter what.

Along with the guarantee of health security, there must be more
responsibility: parents must take their kids to be immunized; we all
should take advantage of preventive care; and we all must work
together to stop the violence that crowds its victims into our
emergency rooms. People who don't have insurance will get coverage --
but they'll have to pay something. The minority of business that
provide no insurance and shift the costs to others, will have to
contribute something. People who smoke will pay more for a pack of
cigarettes. If we want to solve the health care crisis in this
country, there can be no more something for nothing.

In the coming months, I want to work with Democrats and Republicans
to reform our health care system by using the market to bring down
costs and to achieve lasting health security.

For sixty years, this country has tried to reform health care.
President Roosevelt tried. President Truman tried. President Nixon
tried. President Carter tried. Every time, the powerful special
interests defeated them. But not this time.

Facing up to special interests will require courage. It will raise
critical questions about the way we finance our campaigns and how
lobbyists peddle their influence. The work of change will never get
easier until we limit the influence of well financed interests who
profit from the current system. So I call on you now to finish the
job you began last year by passing tough, meaningful campaign finance
reform and lobbying reform this year.

This is a test for all of us. The American people provide those of us
in government service with great benefits -- health care that's always
there. We need to give every hard-working, tax-paying American the
same health care security they give us.

Hear me clearly. If the legislation you send me does not guarantee
every American private health insurance that can never be taken away,
I will take this pen, veto that legislation, and we'll come right back
here and start over again.

But I believe we're ready to do it right now. If you're ready to
guarantee to every American health care that can never be taken way,
now is the time to stand with the people who sent you here.

As we take these steps together to renew America's strength at home,
we must also continue our work to renew America's leadership abroad.

This is a promising moment. Because of the agreements we have
reached, Russia's strategic nuclear missiles soon will no longer be
pointed at the United States, nor will we point ours at them. Instead
of building weapons in space, Russian scientists will help us build
the international space station.

There are still dangers in the world: Arms proliferation; bitter
regional conflicts; ethnic and nationalist tensions in many new
democracies; severe environmental degradation; and fanatics who seek
to cripple the world's cities with terror.

As the world's greatest power, we must maintain our defenses and our
responsibilities. This year we secured indictments against terrorists
and sanctions against those who harbor them. We worked to promote
environmentally sustainable economic growth. We achieved agreements
with Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan to eliminate their nuclear
arsenals. We are working to achieve a Korean peninsula free of
nuclear weapons. We will seek early ratification of a treaty to ban
chemical weapons world-wide. And earlier today we joined with over 30
nations to begin negotiations on a comprehensive ban to stop all
nuclear testing.

But nothing is more important to our security than our nation's armed
forces. We honor their contributions, including those who are carrying
out the longest humanitarian airlift in history in Bosnia, those who
will complete their mission in Somalia this year, and their brave
comrades who gave their lives there.

Our forces are the finest military our nation has ever had, and I
have pledged that as long as I am President, they will remain the
best trained, the best equipped and the best prepared fighting force
on the face of this earth.

Last year I proposed a defense plan that maintains our post Cold War
security at lower cost. This year, many people urged me to cut our
defense spending again to pay for other government programs. I said
no. The budget I send to this Congress draws the line against further
defense cuts and fully protects the readiness and quality of our
forces.

Ultimately, the best strategy to ensure our security and build a
durable peace is to support the advance of democracy. Democracies do
not attack each other; they make better partners in trade and
diplomacy.

That is why we have supported the democratic reformers in Russia and
in the other states of the former Soviet bloc. I applaud the
bi-partisan support this Congress provided last year for our
initiatives to help Russia, Ukraine, and other states though their
epic transformations.

Our support of reform must combine patience and vigilance. We will
urge Russia and the other states to continue with their economic
reforms. And we will seek to cooperate with Russia to solve regional
problems, while insisting that if Russian troops operate in
neighboring states, they do so only when those states agree to their
presence, and in strict accord with international standards. But, as
these new nations chart their own futures, we must not forget how
much more secure and more prosperous our nation will be if democratic
and market reforms succeed across the former communist bloc.

That is why I went to Europe earlier this month: to work with our
European partners to help integrate the former communist countries
into a Europe unified for the first time in history, based on shared
commitments to democracy, free market economies and respect for
existing borders. With our allies, we created a Partnership for Peace
that invites states from the former Soviet bloc and other non-NATO
members to work with NATO in military cooperation. When I met with
Central Europe's leaders -- including Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel,
who put their lives on the line for freedom -- I told them that the
security of their region is important to America's security.

This year we will provide support for democratic renewal, human
rights and sustainable development around the world. We will ask
Congress to ratify the new GATT accord. We will continue standing by
South Africa as it makes its bold and hopeful transition. We will
convene a summit of the western hemisphere's democratic leaders --
from Canada to the tip of South America -- and we will continue to
press for the restoration of democracy in Haiti. And as we build a
more constructive relationship with China, we will insist on clear
signs of improvement in that nation's human rights record.

We will also work for new progress toward peace in the Middle East.
Last year, the world watched Yitzakh Rabin and Yassir Arafat at the
White House in their historic handshake of reconciliation. On the
long, hard road ahead, I am determined to do all I can to help
achieve a comprehensive and lasting peace for all the peoples of the
region.

There are some in our country who argue that with the Cold War over,
America should turn its back on the rest of the world. Many around
the world were afraid we would do just that. But I took this office
on a pledge to keep our nation secure by remaining engaged in the
world. And this year, because of our work together -- enacting NAFTA;
keeping our military strong and prepared; supporting democracy abroad
-- we reaffirmed America's leadership and increased the security of
the American people.

While Americans are more secure from threats abroad, we are less
secure from threats here at home.

Every day, the national peace is shattered by crime. In Petaluma,
California, an innocent slumber party gives way to agonizing tragedy
for the family of Polly Klass. An ordinary train ride on Long Island
ends in a hail of 9-millimeter rounds. A tourist in Florida is nearly
burned alive by bigots simply because he is black. Right here in our
nation's capital, a brave young man named Jason White -- a policeman,
the son and grandson of policemen -- is ruthlessly gunned down.

Violent crime and the fear it provokes are crippling our society,
limiting personal freedom, and fraying the ties that bind us. The
crime bill before Congress gives you a chance to do something about
it -- to be tough and smart.

First, we must recognize that most violent crimes are committed by a
small percentage of criminals, who too often break the laws even on
parole. Those who commit crimes must be punished, and those who
commit repeated violent crimes must be told: Commit a third violent
crime and you'll be put away, and put away for good. Three strikes
and you're out.

Second, we must take steps to reduce violence and prevent crimes,
beginning with more police officers and more community policing. We
know that police who work the streets, know the folks, have the
respect of the kids, and focus on high crime areas, are more likely
to prevent crime as well as catch criminals.

Here tonight is one of those policemen: a brave, young detective,
Kevin Jett, whose beat is eight square blocks in one of the toughest
blocks in New York City. Every day he restores some sanity and safety
and a sense of values to the people whose lives he protects.

That's why we must hire 100,000 new community police officers, well
trained and patrolling beats all over America; a police corps; and
move retiring military personnel into police forces across America.
We must also invest in safe schools, so that our children can learn
to count and read and write without also learning how to duck
bullets.

Third, we must build on the Brady bill, and take further steps to
keep guns out of the hands of criminals. When it comes to guns, let
me be clear: Hunters must always be free to hunt, and law abiding
adults should be free to own guns and protect their homes. I respect
that part of American culture. I grew up in it.

But I want to ask sportsmen and others who lawfully own guns to join
us in a common campaign to reduce gun violence. You didn't create
this problem, but we need your help to solve it. There is no sporting
purpose on earth that should stop us from banishing the assault
weapons that outgun our police and cut down our children. So, I urge
you to pass an assault weapons ban.

Fourth, we must remember that drugs are a factor in an enormous
percentage of crimes. Recent studies indicate that drug use is on the
rise again among young people. The crime bill contains more money for
drug treatment for criminal addicts and boot camps for youthful
offenders. The Administration budget contains a large increase in
funding for drug treatment and drug education. I hope you will pass
them both.

The problem of violence is an American problem. It has no partisan or
philosophical element. Therefore, I urge you to set aside your
partisan differences and pass a strong, smart, tough crime bill now.

But, further, I urge you: As we demand tougher penalties for those
who choose violence, let us also remember how we came to this sad
point. In America's toughest neighborhoods, meanest streets, and
poorest rural areas, we have seen a stunning breakdown of community,
family and work -- the heart and soul of civilized society. This has
created a vast vaccuum into which violence, drugs and gangs have
moved. So, even as we say no to crime, we must give people --
especially our young people -- something to say yes to.

Many of our initiatives -- from job training to welfare reform to
health care to national service -- will help rebuild distressed
communities, strengthen families, and provide work. But more needs to
be done. That is what our community empowerment agenda is all about:
Challenging businesses to provide more investment through Empowerment
Zones; insuring that banks make loans in the same communities their
deposits come from; and passing legislation to unleash the power of
capital through Community Development Banks to create jobs,
opportunity and hope where they are needed most.

Let's be honest. Our problems go way beyond the reach of any
government program. They are rooted in the loss of values, the
disappearance of work, and the breakdown of our families and our
communities. My fellow Americans, we can cut the deficit, create
jobs, promote democracy around the globe, pass welfare reform, and
health care reform, and the toughest crime bill in history, and still
leave too many of our people behind. The American people must want to
change within, if we are to bring back work, family and community.

We cannot renew our country when within a decade more than half of
our children will be born into families where there is no marriage.

We cannot renew our country when thirteen year old boys get
semi-automatic weapons and gun down nine year old boys -- just for
the kick of it.

We cannot renew our country when children are having children and the
fathers of those children are walking away from them as if they don't
amount to anything.

We cannot renew our country when our businesses eagerly look for new
investments and new customers abroad, but ignore those who would give
anything to have their jobs and would gladly buy their products if
they had the money to do it right here at home.

We cannot renew our country unless more of us are willing to join the
churches and other good citizens who are saving kids, adopting
schools, making streets safer.

We cannot renew our country until we all realize that governments
don't raise children, parents do -- parents who know their children's
teachers, turn off the TV, help with the homework, and teach right
from wrong -- can make all the difference.

Let us give our children a future.

Let us take away their guns and give them books. Let us overcome
their despair and replace it with hope. Let us, by our example, teach
them to obey the law, respect our neighbors, and cherish our values.
Let us weave these sturdy threads into a new American community that
can once more stand strong against the forces of despair and evil,
and lead us to a better tomorrow.

The naysayers fear we will not be equal to the challenges of our
time, but they misread our history, our heritage, and even today's
headlines. They all tell us we can and we will overcome any
challenge.

When the earth shook and fires raged in California, when the
Mississippi deluged the farmlands of the Midwest, when a century's
bitterest cold swept from North Dakota to Newport News, iit seemed as
though the world itself was coming apart at the seams. But the
American people came together -- they rose to the occasion, neighbor
helping neighbor, strangers risking life and limb to save strangers,
showing the better angels of our nature.

Let us not reserve those better angels only for natural disasters,
leaving our deepest problems to petty political fights. Let us
instead be true to our spirit -- facing facts, coming together,
bringing hope, moving forward.

Tonight, we are summoned to answer a question as old as the Republic
itself. My fellow Americans, what is the State of the Union? It is
growing stronger. But it must be stronger still. With your help and
with God's, it will be.

Thank you. And may God Bless America.