law. The Supreme Court now has two superb new members, Chief Justice
John Roberts and Justice Sam Alito. I thank the Senate for confirming
both of them. And I will continue to nominate men and women who
understand that judges must be servants of the law, and not legislate
from the bench. Today marks the official retirement of a very special
American. For 24 years of faithful service to our Nation, the United
States is grateful to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
A hopeful society has institutions of science and medicine that do not
cut ethical corners, and that recognize the matchless value of every
life. Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most
egregious abuses of medical research -- human cloning in all its forms ...
creating or implanting embryos for experiments ... creating human-animal
hybrids ... and buying, selling, or patenting human embryos. Human life
is a gift from our Creator -- and that gift should never be discarded,
devalued, or put up for sale.
A hopeful society expects elected officials to uphold the public trust.
Honorable people in both parties are working on reforms to strengthen
the ethical standards of Washington -- and I support your efforts. Each
of us has made a pledge to be worthy of public responsibility -- and
that is a pledge we must never forget, never dismiss, and never betray.
As we renew the promise of our institutions, let us also show the
character of America in our compassion and care for one another.
A hopeful society gives special attention to children who lack
direction and love. Through the Helping America's Youth Initiative, we
are encouraging caring adults to get involved in the life of a child --
and this good work is led by our First Lady, Laura Bush. This year we
will add resources to encourage young people to stay in school -- so
more of America's youth can raise their sights and achieve their dreams.
A hopeful society comes to the aid of fellow citizens in times of
suffering and emergency -- and stays at it until they are back on their
feet. So far the Federal government has committed 85 billion dollars to
the people of the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. We are removing debris,
repairing highways, and building stronger levees. We are providing
business loans and housing assistance. Yet as we meet these immediate
needs, we must also address deeper challenges that existed before the
storm arrived. In New Orleans and in other places, many of our fellow
citizens have felt excluded from the promise of our country. The answer
is not only temporary relief, but schools that teach every child ... and
job skills that bring upward mobility ... and more opportunities to own a
home and start a business. As we recover from a disaster, let us also
work for the day when all Americans are protected by justice, equal in
hope, and rich in opportunity.
A hopeful society acts boldly to fight diseases like HIV/AIDS, which
can be prevented, and treated, and defeated. More than a million
Americans live with HIV, and half of all AIDS cases occur among
African-Americans. I ask Congress to reform and reauthorize the Ryan
White Act ... and provide new funding to states, so we end the waiting
lists for AIDS medicine in America. We will also lead a nationwide
effort, working closely with African-American churches and faith-based
groups, to deliver rapid HIV tests to millions, end the stigma of AIDS,
and come closer to the day when there are no new infections in America.
Fellow citizens, we have been called to leadership in a period of
consequence. We have entered a great ideological conflict we did
nothing to invite. We see great changes in science and commerce that
will influence all our lives. And sometimes it can seem that history is
turning in a wide arc, toward an unknown shore.
Yet the destination of history is determined by human action, and every
great movement of history comes to a point of choosing. Lincoln could
have accepted peace at the cost of disunity and continued slavery.
Martin Luther King could have stopped at Birmingham or at Selma, and
achieved only half a victory over segregation. The United States could
have accepted the permanent division of Europe, and been complicit in
the oppression of others. Today, having come far in our own historical
journey, we must decide: Will we turn back, or finish well?
Before history is written down in books, it is written in courage. Like
Americans before us, we will show that courage and we will finish well.
We will lead freedom's advance. We will compete and excel in the global
economy. We will renew the defining moral commitments of this land. And
so we move forward -- optimistic about our country, faithful to its
cause, and confident of victories to come.
Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless America.
***
State of the Union Address
George W. Bush
January 23, 2007
Thank you very much. And tonight, I have a high privilege and distinct
honor of my own -- as the first President to begin the State of the
Union message with these words: Madam Speaker (Applause.)
In his day, the late Congressman Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr. from
Baltimore, Maryland, saw Presidents Roosevelt and Truman at this
rostrum. But nothing could compare with the sight of his only daughter,
Nancy, presiding tonight as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
(Applause.) Congratulations, Madam Speaker. (Applause.)
Two members of the House and Senate are not with us tonight, and we
pray for the recovery and speedy return of Senator Tim Johnson and
Congressman Charlie Norwood. (Applause.)
Madam Speaker, Vice President Cheney, members of Congress,
distinguished guests, and fellow citizens:
The rite of custom brings us together at a defining hour -- when
decisions are hard and courage is needed. We enter the year 2007 with
large endeavors underway, and others that are ours to begin. In all of
this, much is asked of us. We must have the will to face difficult
challenges and determined enemies -- and the wisdom to face them
together.
Some in this chamber are new to the House and the Senate -- and I
congratulate the Democrat majority. (Applause.) Congress has changed,
but not our responsibilities. Each of us is guided by our own
convictions -- and to these we must stay faithful. Yet we're all held
to the same standards, and called to serve the same good purposes: To
extend this nation's prosperity; to spend the people's money wisely; to
solve problems, not leave them to future generations; to guard America
against all evil; and to keep faith with those we have sent forth to
defend us. (Applause.)
We're not the first to come here with a government divided and
uncertainty in the air. Like many before us, we can work through our
differences, and achieve big things for the American people. Our
citizens don't much care which side of the aisle we sit on -- as long
as we're willing to cross that aisle when there is work to be done.
(Applause.) Our job is to make life better for our fellow Americans,
and to help them to build a future of hope and opportunity -- and this
is the business before us tonight.
A future of hope and opportunity begins with a growing economy -- and
that is what we have. We're now in the 41st month of uninterrupted job
growth, in a recovery that has created 7.2 million new jobs -- so far.
Unemployment is low, inflation is low, and wages are rising. This
economy is on the move, and our job is to keep it that way, not with
more government, but with more enterprise. (Applause.)
Next week, I'll deliver a full report on the state of our economy.
Tonight, I want to discuss three economic reforms that deserve to be
priorities for this Congress.
First, we must balance the federal budget. (Applause.) We can do so
without raising taxes. (Applause.) What we need is impose spending
discipline in Washington, D.C. We set a goal of cutting the deficit in
half by 2009, and met that goal three years ahead of schedule.
(Applause.) Now let us take the next step. In the coming weeks, I will
submit a budget that eliminates the federal deficit within the next
five years. (Applause.) I ask you to make the same commitment.
Together, we can restrain the spending appetite of the federal
government, and we can balance the federal budget. (Applause.)
Next, there is the matter of earmarks. These special interest items are
often slipped into bills at the last hour -- when not even C-SPAN is
watching. (Laughter.) In 2005 alone, the number of earmarks grew to
over 13,000 and totaled nearly $18 billion. Even worse, over 90 percent
of earmarks never make it to the floor of the House and Senate -- they
are dropped into committee reports that are not even part of the bill
that arrives on my desk. You didn't vote them into law. I didn't sign
them into law. Yet, they're treated as if they have the force of law.
The time has come to end this practice. So let us work together to
reform the budget process, expose every earmark to the light of day and
to a vote in Congress, and cut the number and cost of earmarks at least
in half by the end of this session. (Applause.)
And, finally, to keep this economy strong we must take on the challenge
of entitlements. Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid are
commitments of conscience, and so it is our duty to keep them
permanently sound. Yet, we're failing in that duty. And this failure
will one day leave our children with three bad options: huge tax
increases, huge deficits, or huge and immediate cuts in benefits.
Everyone in this chamber knows this to be true -- yet somehow we have
not found it in ourselves to act. So let us work together and do it
now. With enough good sense and goodwill, you and I can fix Medicare
and Medicaid -- and save Social Security. (Applause.)
Spreading opportunity and hope in America also requires public schools
that give children the knowledge and character they need in life. Five
years ago, we rose above partisan differences to pass the No Child Left
Behind Act, preserving local control, raising standards, and holding
those schools accountable for results. And because we acted, students
are performing better in reading and math, and minority students are
closing the achievement gap.
Now the task is to build on the success, without watering down
standards, without taking control from local communities, and without
backsliding and calling it reform. We can lift student achievement even
higher by giving local leaders flexibility to turn around failing
schools, and by giving families with children stuck in failing schools
the right to choose someplace better. (Applause.) We must increase
funds for students who struggle -- and make sure these children get the
special help they need. (Applause.) And we can make sure our children
are prepared for the jobs of the future and our country is more
competitive by strengthening math and science skills. The No Child Left
Behind Act has worked for America's children -- and I ask Congress to
reauthorize this good law. (Applause.)
A future of hope and opportunity requires that all our citizens have
affordable and available health care. (Applause.) When it comes to
health care, government has an obligation to care for the elderly, the
disabled, and poor children. And we will meet those responsibilities.
For all other Americans, private health insurance is the best way to
meet their needs. (Applause.) But many Americans cannot afford a health
insurance policy.
And so tonight, I propose two new initiatives to help more Americans
afford their own insurance. First, I propose a standard tax deduction
for health insurance that will be like the standard tax deduction for
dependents. Families with health insurance will pay no income on
payroll tax -- or payroll taxes on $15,000 of their income. Single
Americans with health insurance will pay no income or payroll taxes on
$7,500 of their income. With this reform, more than 100 million men,
women, and children who are now covered by employer-provided insurance
will benefit from lower tax bills. At the same time, this reform will
level the playing field for those who do not get health insurance
through their job. For Americans who now purchase health insurance on
their own, this proposal would mean a substantial tax savings -- $4,500
for a family of four making $60,000 a year. And for the millions of
other Americans who have no health insurance at all, this deduction
would help put a basic private health insurance plan within their
reach. Changing the tax code is a vital and necessary step to making
health care affordable for more Americans. (Applause.)
My second proposal is to help the states that are coming up with
innovative ways to cover the uninsured. States that make basic private
health insurance available to all their citizens should receive federal
funds to help them provide this coverage to the poor and the sick. I
have asked the Secretary of Health and Human Services to work with
Congress to take existing federal funds and use them to create
"Affordable Choices" grants. These grants would give our nation's
governors more money and more flexibility to get private health
insurance to those most in need.
There are many other ways that Congress can help. We need to expand
Health Savings Accounts. (Applause.) We need to help small businesses
through Association Health Plans. (Applause.) We need to reduce costs
and medical errors with better information technology. (Applause.) We
will encourage price transparency. And to protect good doctors from
junk lawsuits, we passing medical liability reform. (Applause.) In all
we do, we must remember that the best health care decisions are made
not by government and insurance companies, but by patients and their
doctors. (Applause.)
Extending hope and opportunity in our country requires an immigration
system worthy of America -- with laws that are fair and borders that
are secure. When laws and borders are routinely violated, this harms
the interests of our country. To secure our border, we're doubling the
size of the Border Patrol, and funding new infrastructure and
technology.
Yet even with all these steps, we cannot fully secure the border unless
we take pressure off the border -- and that requires a temporary worker
program. We should establish a legal and orderly path for foreign
workers to enter our country to work on a temporary basis. As a result,
they won't have to try to sneak in, and that will leave Border Agents
free to chase down drug smugglers and criminals and terrorists.
(Applause.) We'll enforce our immigration laws at the work site and
give employers the tools to verify the legal status of their workers,
so there's no excuse left for violating the law. (Applause.)
We need to uphold the great tradition of the melting pot that welcomes
and assimilates new arrivals. (Applause.) We need to resolve the status
of the illegal immigrants who are already in our country without
animosity and without amnesty. (Applause.) Convictions run deep in this
Capitol when it comes to immigration. Let us have a serious, civil, and
conclusive debate, so that you can pass, and I can sign, comprehensive
immigration reform into law. (Applause.)
Extending hope and opportunity depends on a stable supply of energy
that keeps America's economy running and America's environment clean.
For too long our nation has been dependent on foreign oil. And this
dependence leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes, and to
terrorists -- who could cause huge disruptions of oil shipments, and
raise the price of oil, and do great harm to our economy.
It's in our vital interest to diversify America's energy supply -- the
way forward is through technology. We must continue changing the way
America generates electric power, by even greater use of clean coal
technology, solar and wind energy, and clean, safe nuclear power.
(Applause.) We need to press on with battery research for plug-in and
hybrid vehicles, and expand the use of clean diesel vehicles and
biodiesel fuel. (Applause.) We must continue investing in new methods
of producing ethanol -- (applause) -- using everything from wood chips
to grasses, to agricultural wastes.
We made a lot of progress, thanks to good policies here in Washington
and the strong response of the market. And now even more dramatic
advances are within reach. Tonight, I ask Congress to join me in
pursuing a great goal. Let us build on the work we've done and reduce
gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent in the next 10 years.
(Applause.) When we do that we will have cut our total imports by the
equivalent of three-quarters of all the oil we now import from the
Middle East.
To reach this goal, we must increase the supply of alternative fuels,
by setting a mandatory fuels standard to require 35 billion gallons of
renewable and alternative fuels in 2017 -- and that is nearly five
times the current target. (Applause.) At the same time, we need to
reform and modernize fuel economy standards for cars the way we did for
light trucks -- and conserve up to 8.5 billion more gallons of gasoline
by 2017.
Achieving these ambitious goals will dramatically reduce our dependence
on foreign oil, but it's not going to eliminate it. And so as we
continue to diversify our fuel supply, we must step up domestic oil
production in environmentally sensitive ways. (Applause.) And to
further protect America against severe disruptions to our oil supply, I
ask Congress to double the current capacity of the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve. (Applause.)
America is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will enable
us to live our lives less dependent on oil. And these technologies will
help us be better stewards of the environment, and they will help us to
confront the serious challenge of global climate change. (Applause.)
A future of hope and opportunity requires a fair, impartial system of
justice. The lives of our citizens across our nation are affected by
the outcome of cases pending in our federal courts. We have a shared
obligation to ensure that the federal courts have enough judges to hear
those cases and deliver timely rulings. As President, I have a duty to
nominate qualified men and women to vacancies on the federal bench. And
the United States Senate has a duty, as well, to give those nominees a
fair hearing, and a prompt up-or-down vote on the Senate floor.
(Applause.)
For all of us in this room, there is no higher responsibility than to
protect the people of this country from danger. Five years have come
and gone since we saw the scenes and felt the sorrow that the
terrorists can cause. We've had time to take stock of our situation.
We've added many critical protections to guard the homeland. We know
with certainty that the horrors of that September morning were just a
glimpse of what the terrorists intend for us -- unless we stop them.
With the distance of time, we find ourselves debating the causes of
conflict and the course we have followed. Such debates are essential
when a great democracy faces great questions. Yet one question has
surely been settled: that to win the war on terror we must take the
fight to the enemy. (Applause.)
From the start, America and our allies have protected our people by
staying on the offense. The enemy knows that the days of comfortable
sanctuary, easy movement, steady financing, and free flowing
communications are long over. For the terrorists, life since 9/11 has
never been the same.
Our success in this war is often measured by the things that did not
happen. We cannot know the full extent of the attacks that we and our
allies have prevented, but here is some of what we do know: We stopped
an al Qaeda plot to fly a hijacked airplane into the tallest building
on the West Coast. We broke up a Southeast Asian terror cell grooming
operatives for attacks inside the United States. We uncovered an al
Qaeda cell developing anthrax to be used in attacks against America.
And just last August, British authorities uncovered a plot to blow up
passenger planes bound for America over the Atlantic Ocean. For each
life saved, we owe a debt of gratitude to the brave public servants who
devote their lives to finding the terrorists and stopping them.
(Applause.)
Every success against the terrorists is a reminder of the shoreless
ambitions of this enemy. The evil that inspired and rejoiced in 9/11 is
still at work in the world. And so long as that's the case, America is
still a nation at war.
In the mind of the terrorist, this war began well before September the
11th, and will not end until their radical vision is fulfilled. And
these past five years have given us a much clearer view of the nature
of this enemy. Al Qaeda and its followers are Sunni extremists,
possessed by hatred and commanded by a harsh and narrow ideology. Take
almost any principle of civilization, and their goal is the opposite.
They preach with threats, instruct with bullets and bombs, and promise
paradise for the murder of the innocent.
Our enemies are quite explicit about their intentions. They want to
overthrow moderate governments, and establish safe havens from which to
plan and carry out new attacks on our country. By killing and
terrorizing Americans, they want to force our country to retreat from
the world and abandon the cause of liberty. They would then be free to
impose their will and spread their totalitarian ideology. Listen to
this warning from the late terrorist Zarqawi: "We will sacrifice our
blood and bodies to put an end to your dreams, and what is coming is
even worse." Osama bin Laden declared: "Death is better than living on
this Earth with the unbelievers among us."
These men are not given to idle words, and they are just one camp in
the Islamist radical movement. In recent times, it has also become
clear that we face an escalating danger from Shia extremists who are
just as hostile to America, and are also determined to dominate the
Middle East. Many are known to take direction from the regime in Iran,
which is funding and arming terrorists like Hezbollah -- a group second
only to al Qaeda in the American lives it has taken.
The Shia and Sunni extremists are different faces of the same
totalitarian threat. Whatever slogans they chant, when they slaughter
the innocent they have the same wicked purposes. They want to kill
Americans, kill democracy in the Middle East, and gain the weapons to
kill on an even more horrific scale.
In the sixth year since our nation was attacked, I wish I could report
to you that the dangers had ended. They have not. And so it remains the
policy of this government to use every lawful and proper tool of
intelligence, diplomacy, law enforcement, and military action to do our
duty, to find these enemies, and to protect the American people.
(Applause.)
This war is more than a clash of arms -- it is a decisive ideological
struggle, and the security of our nation is in the balance. To prevail,
we must remove the conditions that inspire blind hatred, and drove 19
men to get onto airplanes and to come and kill us. What every terrorist
fears most is human freedom
-- societies where men and women make their own choices, answer to
their own conscience, and live by their hopes instead of their
resentments. Free people are not drawn to violent and malignant
ideologies -- and most will choose a better way when they're given a
chance. So we advance our own security interests by helping moderates
and reformers and brave voices for democracy. The great question of our
day is whether America will help men and women in the Middle East to
build free societies and share in the rights of all humanity. And I
say, for the sake of our own security, we must. (Applause.)