Speech Transcript:

 Thank you very much. And tonight, I have a high privilege and
distinct honor of my own -- as the first President to begin the State
of the Union message with these words: Madam Speaker.

In his day, the late Congressman Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr. from
Baltimore, Maryland, saw Presidents Roosevelt and Truman at this
rostrum. But nothing could compare with the sight of his only
daughter, Nancy, presiding tonight as Speaker of the House of
Representatives. Congratulations, Madam Speaker.

Two members of the House and Senate are not with us tonight, and we
pray for the recovery and speedy return of Senator Tim Johnson and
Congressman Charlie Norwood.

Madam Speaker, Vice President Cheney, members of Congress,
distinguished guests, and fellow citizens:

The rite of custom brings us together at a defining hour -- when
decisions are hard and courage is needed. We enter the year 2007 with
large endeavors underway, and others that are ours to begin. In all of
this, much is asked of us. We must have the will to face difficult
challenges and determined enemies -- and the wisdom to face them
together.

Some in this chamber are new to the House and the Senate -- and I
congratulate the Democrat majority. Congress has changed, but not our
responsibilities. Each of us is guided by our own convictions -- and
to these we must stay faithful. Yet we're all held to the same
standards, and called to serve the same good purposes: To extend this
nation's prosperity; to spend the people's money wisely; to solve
problems, not leave them to future generations; to guard America
against all evil; and to keep faith with those we have sent forth to
defend us.

We're not the first to come here with a government divided and
uncertainty in the air. Like many before us, we can work through our
differences, and achieve big things for the American people. Our
citizens don't much care which side of the aisle we sit on -- as long
as we're willing to cross that aisle when there is work to be done.
Our job is to make life better for our fellow Americans, and to help
them to build a future of hope and opportunity -- and this is the
business before us tonight.

A future of hope and opportunity begins with a growing economy -- and
that is what we have. We're now in the 41st month of uninterrupted job
growth, in a recovery that has created 7.2 million new jobs -- so far.
Unemployment is low, inflation is low, and wages are rising. This
economy is on the move, and our job is to keep it that way, not with
more government, but with more enterprise.

Next week, I'll deliver a full report on the state of our economy.
Tonight, I want to discuss three economic reforms that deserve to be
priorities for this Congress.

First, we must balance the federal budget. We can do so without
raising taxes. What we need to do is impose spending discipline in
Washington, D.C. We set a goal of cutting the deficit in half by
2009, and met that goal three years ahead of schedule. Now let us
take the next step. In the coming weeks, I will submit a budget that
eliminates the federal deficit within the next five years. I ask you
to make the same commitment. Together, we can restrain the spending
appetite of the federal government, and we can balance the federal
budget.

Next, there is the matter of earmarks. These special interest items
are often slipped into bills at the last hour -- when not even C-SPAN
is watching. In 2005 alone, the number of earmarks grew to over 13,000
and totaled nearly $18 billion. Even worse, over 90 percent of
earmarks never make it to the floor of the House and Senate -- they
are dropped into committee reports that are not even part of the bill
that arrives on my desk. You didn't vote them into law. I didn't sign
them into law. Yet, they're treated as if they have the force of law.
The time has come to end this practice. So let us work together to
reform the budget process, expose every earmark to the light of day
and to a vote in Congress, and cut the number and cost of earmarks at
least in half by the end of this session.

And, finally, to keep this economy strong we must take on the
challenge of entitlements. Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid
are commitments of conscience, and so it is our duty to keep them
permanently sound. Yet, we're failing in that duty. And this failure
will one day leave our children with three bad options: huge tax
increases, huge deficits, or huge and immediate cuts in benefits.
Everyone in this chamber knows this to be true -- yet somehow we have
not found it in ourselves to act. So let us work together and do it
now. With enough good sense and goodwill, you and I can fix Medicare
and Medicaid -- and save Social Security.

Spreading opportunity and hope in America also requires public
schools that give children the knowledge and character they need in
life. Five years ago, we rose above partisan differences to pass the
No Child Left Behind Act, preserving local control, raising
standards, and holding those schools accountable for results. And
because we acted, students are performing better in reading and math,
and minority students are closing the achievement gap.

Now the task is to build on the success, without watering down
standards, without taking control from local communities, and without
backsliding and calling it reform. We can lift student achievement
even higher by giving local leaders flexibility to turn around
failing schools, and by giving families with children stuck in
failing schools the right to choose someplace better. We must
increase funds for students who struggle -- and make sure these
children get the special help they need. And we can make sure our
children are prepared for the jobs of the future and our country is
more competitive by strengthening math and science skills. The No
Child Left Behind Act has worked for America's children -- and I ask
Congress to reauthorize this good law.

A future of hope and opportunity requires that all our citizens have
affordable and available health care. When it comes to health care,
government has an obligation to care for the elderly, the disabled,
and poor children. And we will meet those responsibilities. For all
other Americans, private health insurance is the best way to meet
their needs. But many Americans cannot afford a health insurance
policy.

And so tonight, I propose two new initiatives to help more Americans
afford their own insurance. First, I propose a standard tax deduction
for health insurance that will be like the standard tax deduction for
dependents. Families with health insurance will pay no income on
payroll tax -- or payroll taxes on $15,000 of their income. Single
Americans with health insurance will pay no income or payroll taxes
on $7,500 of their income. With this reform, more than 100 million
men, women, and children who are now covered by employer-provided
insurance will benefit from lower tax bills. At the same time, this
reform will level the playing field for those who do not get health
insurance through their job. For Americans who now purchase health
insurance on their own, this proposal would mean a substantial tax
savings -- $4,500 for a family of four making $60,000 a year. And for
the millions of other Americans who have no health insurance at all,
this deduction would help put a basic private health insurance plan
within their reach. Changing the tax code is a vital and necessary
step to making health care affordable for more Americans.

My second proposal is to help the states that are coming up with
innovative ways to cover the uninsured. States that make basic
private health insurance available to all their citizens should
receive federal funds to help them provide this coverage to the poor
and the sick. I have asked the Secretary of Health and Human Services
to work with Congress to take existing federal funds and use them to
create "Affordable Choices" grants. These grants would give our
nation's governors more money and more flexibility to get private
health insurance to those most in need.

There are many other ways that Congress can help. We need to expand
Health Savings Accounts. We need to help small businesses through
Association Health Plans. We need to reduce costs and medical errors
with better information technology. We will encourage price
transparency. And to protect good doctors from junk lawsuits, we
passing medical liability reform. In all we do, we must remember that
the best health care decisions are made not by government and
insurance companies, but by patients and their doctors.

Extending hope and opportunity in our country requires an immigration
system worthy of America -- with laws that are fair and borders that
are secure. When laws and borders are routinely violated, this harms
the interests of our country. To secure our border, we're doubling
the size of the Border Patrol, and funding new infrastructure and
technology.

Yet even with all these steps, we cannot fully secure the border
unless we take pressure off the border -- and that requires a
temporary worker program. We should establish a legal and orderly
path for foreign workers to enter our country to work on a temporary
basis. As a result, they won't have to try to sneak in, and that will
leave Border Agents free to chase down drug smugglers and criminals
and terrorists. We'll enforce our immigration laws at the work site
and give employers the tools to verify the legal status of their
workers, so there's no excuse left for violating the law.

We need to uphold the great tradition of the melting pot that
welcomes and assimilates new arrivals. We need to resolve the status
of the illegal immigrants who are already in our country without
animosity and without amnesty. Convictions run deep in this Capitol
when it comes to immigration. Let us have a serious, civil, and
conclusive debate, so that you can pass, and I can sign,
comprehensive immigration reform into law.

Extending hope and opportunity depends on a stable supply of energy
that keeps America's economy running and America's environment clean.
For too long our nation has been dependent on foreign oil. And this
dependence leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes, and to
terrorists -- who could cause huge disruptions of oil shipments, and
raise the price of oil, and do great harm to our economy.

It's in our vital interest to diversify America's energy supply --
the way forward is through technology. We must continue changing the
way America generates electric power, by even greater use of clean
coal technology, solar and wind energy, and clean, safe nuclear
power. We need to press on with battery research for plug-in and
hybrid vehicles, and expand the use of clean diesel vehicles and
biodiesel fuel. We must continue investing in new methods of
producing ethanol using everything from wood chips to grasses, to
agricultural wastes.

We made a lot of progress, thanks to good policies here in Washington
and the strong response of the market. And now even more dramatic
advances are within reach. Tonight, I ask Congress to join me in
pursuing a great goal. Let us build on the work we've done and reduce
gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent in the next 10
years. When we do that we will have cut our total imports by the
equivalent of three-quarters of all the oil we now import from the
Middle East.

To reach this goal, we must increase the supply of alternative fuels,
by setting a mandatory fuels standard to require 35 billion gallons of
renewable and alternative fuels in 2017 -- and that is nearly five
times the current target. At the same time, we need to reform and
modernize fuel economy standards for cars the way we did for light
trucks -- and conserve up to 8.5 billion more gallons of gasoline by
2017.

Achieving these ambitious goals will dramatically reduce our
dependence on foreign oil, but it's not going to eliminate it. And so
as we continue to diversify our fuel supply, we must step up domestic
oil production in environmentally sensitive ways. And to further
protect America against severe disruptions to our oil supply, I ask
Congress to double the current capacity of the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve.

America is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will
enable us to live our lives less dependent on oil. And these
technologies will help us be better stewards of the environment, and
they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate
change.

A future of hope and opportunity requires a fair, impartial system of
justice. The lives of our citizens across our nation are affected by
the outcome of cases pending in our federal courts. We have a shared
obligation to ensure that the federal courts have enough judges to
hear those cases and deliver timely rulings. As President, I have a
duty to nominate qualified men and women to vacancies on the federal
bench. And the United States Senate has a duty, as well, to give
those nominees a fair hearing, and a prompt up-or-down vote on the
Senate floor.

For all of us in this room, there is no higher responsibility than to
protect the people of this country from danger. Five years have come
and gone since we saw the scenes and felt the sorrow that the
terrorists can cause. We've had time to take stock of our situation.
We've added many critical protections to guard the homeland. We know
with certainty that the horrors of that September morning were just a
glimpse of what the terrorists intend for us -- unless we stop them.

With the distance of time, we find ourselves debating the causes of
conflict and the course we have followed. Such debates are essential
when a great democracy faces great questions. Yet one question has
surely been settled: that to win the war on terror we must take the
fight to the enemy.

From the start, America and our allies have protected our people by
staying on the offense. The enemy knows that the days of comfortable
sanctuary, easy movement, steady financing, and free flowing
communications are long over. For the terrorists, life since 9/11 has
never been the same.

Our success in this war is often measured by the things that did not
happen. We cannot know the full extent of the attacks that we and our
allies have prevented, but here is some of what we do know: We stopped
an al Qaeda plot to fly a hijacked airplane into the tallest building
on the West Coast. We broke up a Southeast Asian terror cell grooming
operatives for attacks inside the United States. We uncovered an al
Qaeda cell developing anthrax to be used in attacks against America.
And just last August, British authorities uncovered a plot to blow up
passenger planes bound for America over the Atlantic Ocean. For each
life saved, we owe a debt of gratitude to the brave public servants
who devote their lives to finding the terrorists and stopping them.

Every success against the terrorists is a reminder of the shoreless
ambitions of this enemy. The evil that inspired and rejoiced in 9/11
is still at work in the world. And so long as that's the case,
America is still a nation at war.

In the mind of the terrorist, this war began well before September
the 11th, and will not end until their radical vision is fulfilled.
And these past five years have given us a much clearer view of the
nature of this enemy. Al Qaeda and its followers are Sunni
extremists, possessed by hatred and commanded by a harsh and narrow
ideology. Take almost any principle of civilization, and their goal
is the opposite. They preach with threats, instruct with bullets and
bombs, and promise paradise for the murder of the innocent.

Our enemies are quite explicit about their intentions. They want to
overthrow moderate governments, and establish safe havens from which
to plan and carry out new attacks on our country. By killing and
terrorizing Americans, they want to force our country to retreat from
the world and abandon the cause of liberty. They would then be free to
impose their will and spread their totalitarian ideology. Listen to
this warning from the late terrorist Zarqawi: "We will sacrifice our
blood and bodies to put an end to your dreams, and what is coming is
even worse." Osama bin Laden declared: "Death is better than living
on this Earth with the unbelievers among us."

These men are not given to idle words, and they are just one camp in
the Islamist radical movement. In recent times, it has also become
clear that we face an escalating danger from Shia extremists who are
just as hostile to America, and are also determined to dominate the
Middle East. Many are known to take direction from the regime in
Iran, which is funding and arming terrorists like Hezbollah -- a
group second only to al Qaeda in the American lives it has taken.

The Shia and Sunni extremists are different faces of the same
totalitarian threat. Whatever slogans they chant, when they slaughter
the innocent they have the same wicked purposes. They want to kill
Americans, kill democracy in the Middle East, and gain the weapons to
kill on an even more horrific scale.

In the sixth year since our nation was attacked, I wish I could
report to you that the dangers had ended. They have not. And so it
remains the policy of this government to use every lawful and proper
tool of intelligence, diplomacy, law enforcement, and military action
to do our duty, to find these enemies, and to protect the American
people.

This war is more than a clash of arms -- it is a decisive ideological
struggle, and the security of our nation is in the balance. To
prevail, we must remove the conditions that inspire blind hatred, and
drove 19 men to get onto airplanes and to come and kill us. What every
terrorist fears most is human freedom

-- societies where men and women make their own choices, answer to
their own conscience, and live by their hopes instead of their
resentments. Free people are not drawn to violent and malignant
ideologies -- and most will choose a better way when they're given a
chance. So we advance our own security interests by helping moderates
and reformers and brave voices for democracy. The great question of
our day is whether America will help men and women in the Middle East
to build free societies and share in the rights of all humanity. And I
say, for the sake of our own security, we must.

In the last two years, we've seen the desire for liberty in the
broader Middle East -- and we have been sobered by the enemy's fierce
reaction. In 2005, the world watched as the citizens of Lebanon raised
the banner of the Cedar Revolution, they drove out the Syrian
occupiers and chose new leaders in free elections. In 2005, the
people of Afghanistan defied the terrorists and elected a democratic
legislature. And in 2005, the Iraqi people held three national
elections, choosing a transitional government, adopting the most
progressive, democratic constitution in the Arab world, and then
electing a government under that constitution. Despite endless
threats from the killers in their midst, nearly 12 million Iraqi
citizens came out to vote in a show of hope and solidarity that we
should never forget.

A thinking enemy watched all of these scenes, adjusted their tactics,
and in 2006 they struck back. In Lebanon, assassins took the life of
Pierre Gemayel, a prominent participant in the Cedar Revolution.
Hezbollah terrorists, with support from Syria and Iran, sowed
conflict in the region and are seeking to undermine Lebanon's
legitimately elected government. In Afghanistan, Taliban and al Qaeda
fighters tried to regain power by regrouping and engaging Afghan and
NATO forces. In Iraq, al Qaeda and other Sunni extremists blew up one
of the most sacred places in Shia Islam -- the Golden Mosque of
Samarra. This atrocity, directed at a Muslim house of prayer, was
designed to provoke retaliation from Iraqi Shia -- and it succeeded.
Radical Shia elements, some of whom receive support from Iran, formed
death squads. The result was a tragic escalation of sectarian rage and
reprisal that continues to this day.

This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we're
in. Every one of us wishes this war were over and won. Yet it would
not be like us to leave our promises unkept, our friends abandoned,
and our own security at risk. Ladies and gentlemen: On this day, at
this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this
battle. Let us find our resolve, and turn events toward victory.

We're carrying out a new strategy in Iraq -- a plan that demands more
from Iraq's elected government, and gives our forces in Iraq the
reinforcements they need to complete their mission. Our goal is a
democratic Iraq that upholds the rule of law, respects the rights of
its people, provides them security, and is an ally in the war on
terror.

In order to make progress toward this goal, the Iraqi government must
stop the sectarian violence in its capital. But the Iraqis are not yet
ready to do this on their own. So we're deploying reinforcements of
more than 20,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Iraq. The vast
majority will go to Baghdad, where they will help Iraqi forces to
clear and secure neighborhoods, and serve as advisers embedded in
Iraqi Army units. With Iraqis in the lead, our forces will help
secure the city by chasing down the terrorists, insurgents, and the
roaming death squads. And in Anbar Province, where al Qaeda
terrorists have gathered and local forces have begun showing a
willingness to fight them, we're sending an additional 4,000 United
States Marines, with orders to find the terrorists and clear them
out. We didn't drive al Qaeda out of their safe haven in Afghanistan
only to let them set up a new safe haven in a free Iraq.

The people of Iraq want to live in peace, and now it's time for their
government to act. Iraq's leaders know that our commitment is not
open-ended. They have promised to deploy more of their own troops to
secure Baghdad -- and they must do so. They pledged that they will
confront violent radicals of any faction or political party -- and
they need to follow through, and lift needless restrictions on Iraqi
and coalition forces, so these troops can achieve their mission of
bringing security to all of the people of Baghdad. Iraq's leaders
have committed themselves to a series of benchmarks -- to achieve
reconciliation, to share oil revenues among all of Iraq's citizens,
to put the wealth of Iraq into the rebuilding of Iraq, to allow more
Iraqis to re-enter their nation's civic life, to hold local
elections, and to take responsibility for security in every Iraqi
province. But for all of this to happen, Baghdad must be secure. And
our plan will help the Iraqi government take back its capital and
make good on its commitments.

My fellow citizens, our military commanders and I have carefully
weighed the options. We discussed every possible approach. In the
end, I chose this course of action because it provides the best
chance for success. Many in this chamber understand that America must
not fail in Iraq, because you understand that the consequences of
failure would be grievous and far-reaching.

If American forces step back before Baghdad is secure, the Iraqi
government would be overrun by extremists on all sides. We could
expect an epic battle between Shia extremists backed by Iran, and
Sunni extremists aided by al Qaeda and supporters of the old regime.
A contagion of violence could spill out across the country -- and in
time, the entire region could be drawn into the conflict.

For America, this is a nightmare scenario. For the enemy, this is the
objective. Chaos is the greatest ally -- their greatest ally in this
struggle. And out of chaos in Iraq would emerge an emboldened enemy
with new safe havens, new recruits, new resources, and an even
greater determination to harm America. To allow this to happen would
be to ignore the lessons of September the 11th and invite tragedy.
Ladies and gentlemen, nothing is more important at this moment in our
history than for America to succeed in the Middle East, to succeed in
Iraq and to spare the American people from this danger.

This is where matters stand tonight, in the here and now. I have
spoken with many of you in person. I respect you and the arguments
you've made. We went into this largely united, in our assumptions and
in our convictions. And whatever you voted for, you did not vote for
failure. Our country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq, and I ask
you to give it a chance to work. And I ask you to support our troops
in the field, and those on their way.

The war on terror we fight today is a generational struggle that will
continue long after you and I have turned our duties over to others.
And that's why it's important to work together so our nation can see
this great effort through. Both parties and both branches should work
in close consultation. It's why I propose to establish a special
advisory council on the war on terror, made up of leaders in Congress
from both political parties. We will share ideas for how to position
America to meet every challenge that confronts us. We'll show our
enemies abroad that we are united in the goal of victory.

And one of the first steps we can take together is to add to the
ranks of our military so that the American Armed Forces are ready for
all the challenges ahead. Tonight I ask the Congress to authorize an
increase in the size of our active Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 in
the next five years. A second task we can take on together is to
design and establish a volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps. Such a corps
would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the
burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to hire civilians with
critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them.
It would give people across America who do not wear the uniform a
chance to serve in the defining struggle of our time.

Americans can have confidence in the outcome of this struggle because
we're not in this struggle alone. We have a diplomatic strategy that
is rallying the world to join in the fight against extremism. In
Iraq, multinational forces are operating under a mandate from the
United Nations. We're working with Jordan and Saudi Arabia and Egypt
and the Gulf States to increase support for Iraq's government.

The United Nations has imposed sanctions on Iran, and made it clear
that the world will not allow the regime in Tehran to acquire nuclear
weapons. With the other members of the Quartet -- the U.N., the
European Union, and Russia -- we're pursuing diplomacy to help bring
peace to the Holy Land, and pursuing the establishment of a
democratic Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel in peace
and security. In Afghanistan, NATO has taken the lead in turning back
the Taliban and al Qaeda offensive -- the first time the Alliance has
deployed forces outside the North Atlantic area. Together with our
partners in China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea, we're pursuing
intensive diplomacy to achieve a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear
weapons.

We will continue to speak out for the cause of freedom in places like
Cuba, Belarus, and Burma -- and continue to awaken the conscience of
the world to save the people of Darfur.

American foreign policy is more than a matter of war and diplomacy.
Our work in the world is also based on a timeless truth: To whom much
is given, much is required. We hear the call to take on the challenges
of hunger and poverty and disease -- and that is precisely what
America is doing. We must continue to fight HIV/AIDS, especially on
the continent of Africa. Because you funded our Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief, the number of people receiving life-saving drugs has
grown from 50,000 to more than 800,000 in three short years. I ask
you to continue funding our efforts to fight HIV/AIDS. I ask you to
provide $1.2 billion over five years so we can combat malaria in 15
African countries.

I ask that you fund the Millennium Challenge Account, so that
American aid reaches the people who need it, in nations where
democracy is on the rise and corruption is in retreat. And let us
continue to support the expanded trade and debt relief that are the
best hope for lifting lives and eliminating poverty.

When America serves others in this way, we show the strength and
generosity of our country. These deeds reflect the character of our
people. The greatest strength we have is the heroic kindness,
courage, and self-sacrifice of the American people. You see this
spirit often if you know where to look -- and tonight we need only
look above to the gallery.

Dikembe Mutombo grew up in Africa, amid great poverty and disease. He
came to Georgetown University on a scholarship to study medicine --
but Coach John Thompson got a look at Dikembe and had a different
idea. Dikembe became a star in the NBA, and a citizen of the United
States. But he never forgot the land of his birth, or the duty to
share his blessings with others. He built a brand new hospital in his
old hometown. A friend has said of this good-hearted man: "Mutombo
believes that God has given him this opportunity to do great things."
And we are proud to call this son of the Congo a citizen of the United
States of America.

After her daughter was born, Julie Aigner-Clark searched for ways to
share her love of music and art with her child. So she borrowed some
equipment, and began filming children's videos in her basement. The
Baby Einstein Company was born, and in just five years her business
grew to more than $20 million in sales. In November 2001, Julie sold
Baby Einstein to the Walt Disney Company, and with her help Baby
Einstein has grown into a $200 million business. Julie represents the
great enterprising spirit of America. And she is using her success to
help others -- producing child safety videos with John Walsh of the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Julie says of her
new project: "I believe it's the most important thing that I have ever
done. I believe that children have the right to live in a world that
is safe." And so tonight, we are pleased to welcome this talented
business entrepreneur and generous social entrepreneur -- Julie
Aigner-Clark.

Three weeks ago, Wesley Autrey was waiting at a Harlem subway station
with his two little girls, when he saw a man fall into the path of a
train. With seconds to act, Wesley jumped onto the tracks, pulled the
man into the space between the rails, and held him as the train passed
right above their heads. He insists he's not a hero. He says: "We got
guys and girls overseas dying for us to have our freedoms. We have
got to show each other some love." There is something wonderful about
a country that produces a brave and humble man like Wesley Autrey.

Tommy Rieman was a teenager pumping gas in Independence, Kentucky,
when he enlisted in the United States Army. In December 2003, he was
on a reconnaissance mission in Iraq when his team came under heavy
enemy fire. From his Humvee, Sergeant Rieman returned fire; he used
his body as a shield to protect his gunner. He was shot in the chest
and arm, and received shrapnel wounds to his legs -- yet he refused
medical attention, and stayed in the fight. He helped to repel a
second attack, firing grenades at the enemy's position. For his
exceptional courage, Sergeant Rieman was awarded the Silver Star. And
like so many other Americans who have volunteered to defend us, he has
earned the respect and the gratitude of our entire country.

In such courage and compassion, ladies and gentlemen, we see the
spirit and character of America -- and these qualities are not in
short supply. This is a decent and honorable country -- and
resilient, too. We've been through a lot together. We've met
challenges and faced dangers, and we know that more lie ahead. Yet we
can go forward with confidence -- because the State of our Union is
strong, our cause in the world is right, and tonight that cause goes
on. God bless.

See you next year. Thank you for your prayers.