America is a strong force for peace—­from Northern Ireland to Bosnia to the Middle East.

Thanks to the leadership of Vice President Gore, we have a government for the Information Age, once again a government that is a progressive instrument of the common good, rooted in our oldest values of opportunity, responsibility and community, devoted to fiscal responsibility, determined to give our people the tools they need to make the most of their own lives in the 21st century, a 21st century government for 21st century America.

My fellow Americans, I stand before you tonight to report that the state of our union is strong.  Now, America is working again.  The promise of our future is limitless.  But we cannot realize that promise if we allow the hum of our prosperity to lull us into complacency.  How we fare as a nation far into the 21st century depends upon what we do as a nation today.

So, with our budget surplus growing, our economy expanding, our confidence rising, now is the moment for this generation to meet our historic responsibility to the 21st century.

Our fiscal discipline gives us an unsurpassed opportunity to address a remarkable new challenge, the aging of America.  With the number of elderly Americans set to double by 2030, the baby boom will become a senior boom.

So first and above all, we must save Social Security for the 21st century.

Early in this century, being old meant being poor.  When President Roosevelt created Social Security, thousands wrote to thank him for eliminating what one woman called “the stark terror of penniless, helpless old age.”  Even today, without Social Security, half our nation’s elderly would be forced into poverty.

Today, Social Security is strong, but by 2013, payroll taxes will no longer be sufficient to cover monthly payments.  By 2032, the trust fund will be exhausted and Social Security will be unable to pay the full benefits older Americans have been promised.

The best way to keep Social Security a rock solid guarantee is not to make drastic cuts in benefits; not to raise payroll tax rates; not to drain resources from Social Security in the name of saving it.  Instead, I propose that we make the historic decision to invest the surplus to save Social Security.

Specifically, I propose that we commit 60 percent of the budget surplus for the next 15 years to Social Security, investing a small portion in the private sector just as any private or state government pension would do.  This will earn a higher return and keep Social Security sound for 55 years.

But we must aim higher.  We should put Social Security on a sound footing for the next 75 years.  We should reduce poverty among elderly women, who are nearly twice as likely to be poor as are other seniors.  And we should eliminate the limits on what seniors on Social Security can earn.

Now, these changes will require difficult, but fully achievable choices over and above the dedication of the surplus.  They must be made on a bipartisan basis.  They should be made this year.  So let me say to you tonight, I reach out my hand to all of you in both houses in both parties and ask that we join together in saying to the American people, we will save Social Security now.