In Iceland, last October, we had one moment of opportunity that the Soviets dashed because they sought to cripple our Strategic Defense Initiative, SDI.  I wouldn’t let them do it then; I won’t let them do it now or in the future.  This is the most positive and promising defense program we have undertaken.  It’s the path, for both sides, to a safer future—­a system that defends human life instead of threatening it.  SDI will go forward.  The United States has made serious, fair, and far-reaching proposals to the Soviet Union, and this is a moment of rare opportunity for arms reduction.  But I will need, and American negotiators in Geneva will need, Congress’ support.  Enacting the Soviet negotiating position into American law would not be the way to win a good agreement.  So, I must tell you in this Congress I will veto any effort that undercuts our national security and our negotiating leverage.

Now, today, we also find ourselves engaged in expanding peaceful commerce across the world.  We will work to expand our opportunities in international markets through the Uruguay round of trade negotiations and to complete an historic free trade arrangement between the world’s two largest trading partners, Canada and the United States.  Our basic trade policy remains the same:  We remain opposed as ever to protectionism, because America’s growth and future depend on trade.  But we would insist on trade that is fair and free.  We are always willing to be trade partners but never trade patsies.

Now, from foreign borders let us return to our own, because America in the world is only as strong as America at home.  This 100th Congress has high responsibilities.  I begin with a gentle reminder that many of these are simply the incomplete obligations of the past.  The American people deserve to be impatient, because we do not yet have the public house in order.  We’ve had great success in restoring our economic integrity, and we’ve rescued our nation from the worst economic mess since the Depression.  But there’s more to do.  For starters, the Federal deficit is outrageous.  For years I’ve asked that we stop pushing onto our children the excesses of our government.  And what the Congress finally needs to do is pass a constitutional amendment that mandates a balanced budget and forces government to live within its means.  States, cities, and the families of America balance their budgets.  Why can’t we?

Next, the budget process is a sorry spectacle.  The missing of deadlines and the nightmare of monstrous continuing resolutions packing hundreds of billions of dollars of spending into one bill must be stopped.  We ask the Congress once again:  Give us the same tool that 43 Governors have—­a lineitem veto so we can carve out the boondoggles and pork, those items that would never survive on their own.  I will send the Congress broad recommendations on the budget, but first I’d like to see yours.  Let’s go to work and get this done together.