That was encouraging, you know?  There was more balance on the seesaw.  I like that.  Let’s give them a hand.  That’s great.

Working parents also need quality child care.  So, again this year, I ask Congress to support our plan for tax credits and subsidies for working families, for improved safety and quality, for expanded after-school program.  And our plan also includes a new tax credit for stay-at-home parents, too.  They need support as well.

Parents should never have to worry about choosing between their children and their work.  Now, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the very first bill I signed into law, has now, since 1993, helped millions and millions of Americans to care for a newborn baby or an ailing relative without risking their jobs.  I think it’s time, with all of the evidence that it has been so little burdensome to employers, to extend family leave to 10 million more Americans working for smaller companies, and I hope you will support it.

Finally, on the matter of work, parents should never have to face discrimination in the workplace.  So I want to ask Congress to prohibit companies from refusing to hire or promote workers simply because they have children.  That is not right.

America’s families deserve the world’s best medical care.  Thanks to bipartisan federal support for medical research, we are not on the verge of new treatments to prevent or delay diseases from Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’s to arthritis to cancer.  But as we continue our advances in medical science, we can’t let our medical system lag behind.

Managed care has literally transformed medicine in America, driving down costs, but threatening to drive down quality as well.

I think we ought to say to every American, you should have the right to know all you medical options, not just the cheapest.  If you need a specialist, you should have a right to see one.  You have a right to the nearest emergency care if you’re in an accident.  These are things that we ought to say.  And I think we ought to say you should have a right to keep your doctor during a period of treatment whether it’s a pregnancy or a chemotherapy treatment or anything else.  I believe this.

Now I’ve ordered these rights to be extended to the 85 million Americans served by Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health programs.  But only Congress can pass a Patients’ Bill of Rights for all Americans.

Last year, Congress missed that opportunity, and we must not miss that opportunity again.  For the sake of our families, I ask us to join together across party lines and pass a strong enforceable Patients’ Bill of Rights.

As more of our medical records are stored electronically, the threats to all of our privacy increase.  Because Congress has given me the authority to act if it does not do so by August, one way or another, we can all say to the American people, we will protect the privacy of medical records this year.