Now, I realize that this four-part plan is easier to describe than it will be to enact.  But the looming deficits that hang over us and over America’s future must be reduced.  The path I’ve outlined is fair, balanced, and realistic.  If enacted, it will ensure a steady decline in deficits, aiming toward a balanced budget by the end of the decade.  It’s the only path that will lead to a strong, sustained recovery.  Let us follow that path together.

No domestic challenge is more crucial than providing stable, permanent jobs for all Americans who want to work.  The recovery program will provide jobs for most, but others will need special help and training for new skills.  Shortly, I will submit to the Congress the Employment Act of 1983, designed to get at the special problems of the long-term unemployed, as well as young people trying to enter the job market.  I’ll propose extending unemployment benefits, including special incentives to employers who hire the long-term unemployed, providing programs for displaced workers, and helping federally funded and State-administered unemployment insurance programs provide workers with training and relocation assistance.  Finally, our proposal will include new incentives for summer youth employment to help young people get a start in the job market.

We must offer both short-term help and long-term hope for our unemployed.  I hope we can work together on this.  I hope we can work together as we did last year in enacting the landmark Job Training Partnership Act.  Regulatory reform legislation, a responsible clean air act, and passage of enterprise zone legislation will also create new incentives for jobs and opportunity.

One of out of every five jobs in our country depends on trade.  So, I will propose a broader strategy in the field of international trade—­one that increases the openness of our trading system and is fairer to America’s farmers and workers in the world marketplace.  We must have adequate export financing to sell American products overseas.  I will ask for new negotiating authority to remove barriers and to get more of our products into foreign markets.  We must strengthen the organization of our trade agencies and make changes in our domestic laws and international trade policy to promote free trade and the increased flow of American goods, services, and investments.

Our trade position can also be improved by making our port system more efficient.  Better, more active harbors translate into stable jobs in our coalfields, railroads, trucking industry, and ports.  After 2 years of debate, it’s time for us to get together and enact a port modernization bill.

Education, training, and retraining are fundamental to our success as are research and development and productivity.  Labor, management, and government at all levels can and must participate in improving these tools of growth.  Tax policy, regulatory practices, and government programs all need constant reevaluation in terms of our competitiveness.  Every American has a role and a stake in international trade.