They express America’s common determination to achieve goals.  They imply action.

In most cases, you have already begun that action—­but it is not fully completed, of course.

Let me speak for a moment about these commitments.  I am going to speak in the language which the Congress itself spoke when it passed these measures.  I am going to quote from your words.

In 1966, Congress declared that “improving the quality of urban life is the most critical domestic problem facing the United States.”  Two years later it affirmed the historic goal of “a decent home . . . for every American family.”  That is your language.

Now to meet these commitments, we must increase our support for the model cities program, where blueprints of change are already being prepared in more than 150 American cities.

To achieve the goals of the Housing Act of 1968 that you have already passed, we should begin this year more than 500,000 homes for needy families in the coming fiscal year.  Funds are provided in the new budget to do just this.  This is almost 10 times—­10 times—­the average rate of the past 10 years.

Our cities and our towns are being pressed for funds to meet the needs of their growing populations.  So I believe an urban development bank should be created by the Congress.  This bank could obtain resources through the issuance of taxable bonds and it could then lend these resources at reduced rates to the communities throughout the land for schools, hospitals, parks, and other public facilities.

Since we enacted the Social Security Act back in 1935, Congress has recognized the necessity to “make more adequate provision for aged persons . . . through maternal and child welfare . . . and public health.”  Those are the words of the Congress—­“more adequate.”

The time has come, I think, to make it more adequate.  I believe we should increase social security benefits, and I am so recommending tonight.

I am suggesting that there should be an overall increase in benefits of at least 13 percent.  Those who receive only the minimum of $55 should get $80 a month.

Our Nation, too, is rightfully proud of our medical advances.  But we should remember that our country ranks 15th among the nations of the world in its infant mortality rate.

I think we should assure decent medical care for every expectant mother and for their children during the first year of their life in the United States of America.

I think we should protect our children and their families from the costs of catastrophic illness.

As we pass on from medicine, I think nothing is clearer to the Congress than the commitment that the Congress made to end poverty.  Congress expressed it well, I think, in 1964, when they said:  “It is the policy of the United States to eliminate the paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty in this nation.”

This is the richest nation in the world.  The antipoverty program has had many achievements.  It also has some failures.  But we must not cripple it after only 3 years of trying to solve the human problems that have been with us and have been building up among us for generations.