We live in an age of possibility.  A hundred years ago we moved from farm to factory.  Now we move to an age of technology, information, and global competition.  These changes have opened vast new opportunities for our people, but they have also presented them with stiff challenges.  While more Americans are living better, too many of our fellow citizens are working harder just to keep up, and they are rightly concerned about the security of their families.

The Role Of Government

We must answer here three fundamental questions:  First, how do we make the American Dream of opportunity for all a reality for all Americans who are willing to work for it?  Second, how do we preserve our old and enduring values as we move into the future?  And, third, how do we meet these challenges together, as one America?

We know big government does not have all the answers.  We know there’s not a program for every problem.  We have worked to give the American people a smaller, less bureaucratic government in Washington.  And we have to give the American people one that lives within its means.

The era of big government is over.  But we cannot go back to the time when our citizens were left to fend for themselves.  Instead, we must go forward as one America, one nation working together to meet the challenges we face together.  Self-reliance and teamwork are not opposing virtues; we must have both.

I believe our new, smaller government must work in an old-fashioned American way, together with all of our citizens through state and local governments, in the workplace, in religious, charitable and civic associations.  Our goal must be to enable all our people to make the most of their own lives—­with stronger families, more educational opportunity, economic security, safer streets, a cleaner environment in a safer world.

To improve the state of our Union, we must ask more of ourselves, we must expect more of each other, and we must face our challenges together.

Here, in this place, our responsibility begins with balancing the budget in a way that is fair to all Americans.  There is now broad bipartisan agreement that permanent deficit spending must come to an end.

I compliment the Republican leadership and the membership for the energy and determination you have brought to this task of balancing the budget.  And I thank the Democrats for passing the largest deficit reduction plan in history in 1993, which has already cut the deficit nearly in half in three years.

Deficit

Since 1993, we have all begun to see the benefits of deficit reduction.  Lower interest rates have made it easier for businesses to borrow and to invest and to create new jobs.  Lower interest rates have brought down the cost of home mortgages, car payments and credit card rates to ordinary citizens.  Now, it is time to finish the job and balance the budget.

Though differences remain among us which are significant, the combined total of the proposed savings that are common to both plans is more than enough, using the numbers from your Congressional Budget Office to balance the budget in seven years and to provide a modest tax cut.