As we came to the decade of the eighties, we faced the worst crisis in our postwar history.  In the seventies were years of rising problems and falling confidence.  There was a feeling government had grown beyond the consent of the governed.  Families felt helpless in the face of mounting inflation and the indignity of taxes that reduced reward for hard work, thrift, and risktaking.  All this was overlaid by an evergrowing web of rules and regulations.

On the international scene, we had an uncomfortable feeling that we’d lost the respect of friend and foe.  Some questioned whether we had the will to defend peace and freedom.  But America is too great for small dreams.  There was a hunger in the land for a spiritual revival; if you will, a crusade for renewal.  The American people said:  Let us look to the future with confidence, both at home and abroad.  Let us give freedom a chance.

Americans were ready to make a new beginning, and together we have done it.  We’re confronting our problems one by one.  Hope is alive tonight for millions of young families and senior citizens set free from unfair tax increases and crushing inflation.  Inflation has been beaten down from 12.4 to 3.2 percent, and that’s a great victory for all the people.  The prime rate has been cut almost in half, and we must work together to bring it down even more.

Together, we passed the first across-the-board tax reduction for everyone since the Kennedy tax cuts.  Next year, tax rates will be indexed so inflation can’t push people into higher brackets when they get cost-of-living pay raises.  Government must never again use inflation to profit at the people’s expense.

Today a working family earning $25,000 has $1,100 more in purchasing power than if tax and inflation rates were still at the 1980 levels.  Real after-tax income increased 5 percent last year.  And economic deregulation of key industries like transportation has offered more chances—­or choices, I should say, to consumers and new changes—­or chances for entrepreneurs and protecting safety.  Tonight, we can report and be proud of one of the best recoveries in decades.  Send away the handwringers and the doubting Thomases.  Hope is reborn for couples dreaming of owning homes and for risktakers with vision to create tomorrow’s opportunities.

The spirit of enterprise is sparked by the sunrise industries of high-tech and by small business people with big ideas—­people like Barbara Proctor, who rose from a ghetto to build a multimillion-dollar advertising agency in Chicago; Carlos Perez, a Cuban refugee, who turned $27 and a dream into a successful importing business in Coral Gables, Florida.

People like these are heroes for the eighties.  They helped 4 million Americans find jobs in 1983.  More people are drawing paychecks tonight than ever before.  And Congress helps—­or progress helps everyone—­well, Congress does too——­everyone.  In 1983 women filled 73 percent of all the new jobs in managerial, professional, and technical fields.