I want to say a special word now to those who work for our federal government.  Today our federal government is 200,000 employees smaller than it was the day I took office as President.

Our federal government today is the smallest it has been in 30 years, and it’s getting smaller every day.  Most of our fellow Americans probably don’t know that.  And there is a good reason:  The remaining federal work force is composed of Americans who are now working harder and working smarter than ever before, to make sure the quality of our services does not decline.

I’d like to give you one example.  His name is Richard Dean.  He is a 49 year-old Vietnam veteran who’s worked for the Social Security Administration for 22 years now.  Last year he was hard at work in the Federal Building in Oklahoma City when the blast killed 169 people and brought the rubble down all around him.  He reentered that building four times.  He saved the lives of three women.  He’s here with us this evening, and I want to recognize Richard and applaud both his public service and his extraordinary personal heroism.

But Richard Dean’s story doesn’t end there.  This last November, he was forced out of his office when the government shut down.  And the second time the government shut down he continued helping Social Security recipients, but he was working without pay.

On behalf of Richard Dean and his family, and all the other people who are out there working every day doing a good job for the American people, I challenge all of you in this Chamber:  Never, ever shut the federal government down again.

On behalf of all Americans, especially those who need their Social Security payments at the beginning of March, I also challenge the Congress to preserve the full faith and credit of the United States—­to honor the obligations of this great nation as we have for 220 years; to rise above partisanship and pass a straightforward extension of the debt limit and show people America keeps its word.

I know that this evening I have asked a lot of Congress, and even more from America.  But I am confident:  When Americans work together in their homes, their schools, their churches, their synagogues, their civic groups, their workplace, they can meet any challenge.

I say again, the era of big government is over.  But we can’t go back to the era of fending for yourself.  We have to go forward to the era of working together as a community, as a team, as one America, with all of us reaching across these lines that divide us—­the division, the discrimination, the rancor—­we have to reach across it to find common ground.  We have got to work together if we want America to work.

I want you to meet two more people tonight who do just that.  Lucius Wright is a teacher in the Jackson, Mississippi, public school system.  A Vietnam veteran, he has created groups to help inner-city children turn away from gangs and build futures they can believe in.  Sergeant Jennifer Rodgers is a police officer in Oklahoma City.  Like Richard Dean, she helped to pull her fellow citizens out of the rubble and deal with that awful tragedy.  She reminds us that in their response to that atrocity the people of Oklahoma City lifted all of us with their basic sense of decency and community.