--A program to insure that no American family will be prevented from
obtaining basic medical care by inability to pay.
--I will propose a major increase in and redirection of aid to medical
schools, to greatly increase the number of doctors and other health
personnel.
--Incentives to improve the delivery of health services, to get more
medical care resources into those areas that have not been adequately
served, to make greater use of medical assistants, and to slow the alarming
rise in the costs of medical care.
--New programs to encourage better preventive medicine, by attacking the
causes of disease and injury, and by providing incentives to doctors to
keep people well rather than just to treat them when they are sick.
I will also ask for an appropriation of an extra $100 million to launch an
intensive campaign to find a cure for cancer, and I will ask later for
whatever additional funds can effectively be used. The time has come in
America when the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and
took man to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread disease.
Let us make a total national commitment to achieve this goal.
America has long been the wealthiest nation in the world. Now it is time we
became the healthiest nation in the world.
The fifth great goal is to strengthen and to renew our State and local
governments.
As we approach our 200th anniversary in 1976, we remember that this Nation
launched itself as a loose confederation of separate States, without a
workable central government. At that time, the mark of its leaders' vision
was that they quickly saw the need to balance the separate powers of the
States with a government of central powers.
And so they gave us a constitution of balanced powers, of unity with
diversity--and so clear was their vision that it survives today as the
oldest written constitution still in force in the world.
For almost two centuries since--and dramatically in the 1930's--at those
great turning points when the question has been between the States and the
Federal Government, that question has been resolved in favor of a stronger
central Federal Government.
During this time the Nation grew and the Nation prospered. But one thing
history tells us is that no great movement goes in the same direction
forever. Nations change, they adapt, or they slowly die.
The time has now come in America to reverse the flow of power and resources
from the States and communities to Washington, and start power and
resources flowing back from Washington to the States and communities and,
more important, to the people all across America.
The time has come for a new partnership between the Federal Government and
the States and localities--a partnership in which we entrust the States and
localities with a larger share of the Nation's responsibilities, and in
which we share our Federal revenues with them so that they can meet those
responsibilities.
To achieve this goal, I propose to the Congress tonight that we enact a
plan of revenue sharing historic in scope and bold in concept.
All across America today, States and cities are confronted with a financial
crisis. Some have already been cutting back on essential services---for
example, just recently San Diego and Cleveland cut back on trash
collections. Most are caught between the prospects of bankruptcy on the one
hand and adding to an already crushing tax burden on the other.
As one indication of the rising costs of local government, I discovered the
other day that my home town of Whittier, California--which has a population
of 67,000--has a larger budget for 1971 than the entire Federal budget was
in 1791.
Now the time has come to take a new direction, and once again to introduce
a new and more creative balance to our approach to government.
So let us put the money where the needs are. And let us put the power to
spend it where the people are.
I propose that the Congress make a $16 billion investment in renewing
State and local government. Five billion dollars of this will be in new and
unrestricted funds to be used as the States and localities see fit. The
other $11 billion will be provided by allocating $1 billion of new funds
and converting one-third of the money going to the present narrow-purpose
aid programs into Federal revenue sharing funds for six broad purposes--for
urban development, rural development, education, transportation, job
training, and law enforcement--but with the States and localities making
their own decisions on how it should be spent within each category.
For the next fiscal year, this would increase total Federal aid to the
States and localities more than 25 percent over the present level.
The revenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress will include the
safeguards against discrimination that accompany all other Federal funds
allocated to the States. Neither the President nor the Congress nor the
conscience of this Nation can permit money which comes from all the people
to be used in a way which discriminates against some of the people.
The Federal Government will still have a large and vital role to play in
achieving our national progress. Established functions that are clearly and
essentially Federal in nature will still be performed by the Federal
Government. New functions that need to be sponsored or performed by the
Federal Government--such as those I have urged tonight in welfare and
health--will be added to the Federal agenda. Whenever it makes the best
sense for us to act as a whole nation, the Federal Government should and
will lead the way. But where States or local governments can better do what
needs to be done, let us see that they have the resources to do it there.
Under this plan, the Federal Government will provide the States and
localities with more money and less interference--and by cutting down the
interference the same amount of money will go a lot further.
Let us share our resources.
Let us share them to rescue the States and localities from the brink of
financial crisis.
Let us share them to give homeowners and wage earners a chance to escape
from ever-higher property taxes and sales taxes.
Let us share our resources for two other reasons as well.
The first of these reasons has to do with government itself, and the second
has to do with each of us, with the individual.
Let's face it. Most Americans today are simply fed up with government at
all levels. They will not--and they should not--continue to tolerate the
gap between promise and performance in government.
The fact is that we have made the Federal Government so strong it grows
muscle-bound and the States and localities so weak they approach
impotence.
If we put more power in more places, we can make government more creative
in more places. That way we multiply the number of people with the ability
to make things happen--and we can open the way to a new burst of creative
energy throughout America.
The final reason I urge this historic shift is much more personal, for each
and for every one of us.
As everything seems to have grown bigger and more complex in America, as
the forces that shape our lives seem to have grown more distant and more
impersonal, a great feeling of frustration has crept across this land.
Whether it is the workingman who feels neglected, the black man who feels
oppressed, or the mother concerned about her children, there has been a
growing feeling that "Things are in the saddle, and ride mankind."
Millions of frustrated young Americans today are crying out--asking not
what will government do for me, but what can I do, how can I contribute,
how can I matter?
And so let us answer them. Let us say to them and let us say to all
Americans, "We hear you. We will give you a chance. We are going to give
you a new chance to have more to say about the decisions that affect your
future--a chance to participate in government--because we are going to
provide more centers of power where what you do can make a difference that
you can see and feel in your own life and the life of your whole
community."
The further away government is from people, the stronger government becomes
and the weaker people become. And a nation with a strong government and a
weak people is an empty shell.
I reject the patronizing idea that government in Washington, D.C., is
inevitably more wise, more honest, and more efficient than government at
the local or State level. The honesty and efficiency of government depends
on people. Government at all levels has good people and bad people. And the
way to get more good people into government is to give them more
opportunity to do good things.
The idea that a bureaucratic elite in Washington knows best what is best
for people everywhere and that you cannot trust local governments is really
a contention that you cannot trust people to govern themselves. This notion
is completely foreign to the American experience. Local government is the
government closest to the people, it is most responsive to the individual
person. It is people's government in a far more intimate way than the
Government in Washington can ever be.
People came to America because they wanted to determine their own future
rather than to live in a country where others determined their future for
them.
What this change means is that once again in America we are placing our
trust in people.
I have faith in people. I trust the judgment of people. Let us give the
people of America a chance, a bigger voice in deciding for themselves those
questions that so greatly affect their lives.
The sixth great goal is a complete reform of the Federal Government
itself.
Based on a long and intensive study with the aid of the best advice
obtainable, I have concluded that a sweeping reorganization of the
executive branch is needed if the Government is to keep up with the times
and with the needs of the people.
I propose, therefore, that we reduce the present 12 Cabinet Departments to
eight.
I propose that the Departments of State, Treasury, Defense, and Justice
remain, but that all the other departments be consolidated into four: Human
Resources, Community Development, Natural Resources, and Economic
Development.
Let us look at what these would be:
--First, a department dealing with the concerns of people--as individuals,
as members of a family--a department focused on human needs.
--Second, a department concerned with the community--rural communities and
urban communities--and with all that it takes to make a community function
as a community.
--Third, a department concerned with our physical environment, with the
preservation and balanced use of those great natural resources on which our
Nation depends.
--And fourth, a department concerned with our prosperity--with our jobs,
our businesses, and those many activities that keep our economy running
smoothly and well.
Under this plan, rather than dividing up our departments by narrow
subjects, we would organize them around the great purposes of government.
Rather than scattering responsibility by adding new levels of bureaucracy,
we would focus and concentrate the responsibility for getting problems
solved.
With these four departments, when we have a problem we will know where to
go--and the department will have the authority and the resources to do
something about it.
Over the years we have added departments and created agencies at the
Federal level, each to serve a new constituency, to handle a particular
task--and these have grown and multiplied in what has become a hopeless
confusion of form and function.
The time has come to match our structure to our purposes---to look with a
fresh eye, to organize the Government by conscious, comprehensive design to
meet the new needs of a new era.
One hundred years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood on a battlefield and spoke of
a "government of the people, by the people, for the people." Too often
since then, we have become a nation of the Government, by the Government,
for the Government.
By enacting these reforms, we can renew that principle that Lincoln stated
so simply and so well.
By giving everyone's voice a chance to be heard, we will have government
that truly is of the people.
By creating more centers of meaningful power, more places where decisions
that really count can be made, by giving more people a chance to do
something, we can have government that truly is by the people.
And by setting up a completely modern, functional system of government at
the national level, we in Washington will at last be able to provide
government that is truly for the people.
I realize that what I am asking is that not only the executive branch in
Washington but that even this Congress will have to change by giving up
some of its power.
Change is hard. But without change there can be no progress. And for each
of us the question then becomes, not "Will change cause me inconvenience?"
but "Will change bring progress for America?"
Giving up power is hard. But I would urge all of you, as leaders of this
country, to remember that the truly revered leaders in world history are
those who gave power to people, and not those who took it away.
As we consider these reforms we will be acting, not for the next 2 years or
for the next 10 years, but for the next 100 years.
So let us approach these six great goals with a sense not only of this
moment in history but also of history itself.
Let us act with the willingness to work together and the vision and the
boldness and the courage of those great Americans who met in Philadelphia
almost 190 years ago to write a constitution.
Let us leave a heritage as they did--not just for our children but for
millions yet unborn--of a nation where every American will have a chance
not only to live in peace and to enjoy prosperity and opportunity but to
participate in a system of government where he knows not only his votes but
his ideas count--a system of government which will provide the means for
America to reach heights of achievement undreamed of before.
Those men who met at Philadelphia left a great heritage because they had a
vision--not only of what the Nation was but of what it could become.
As I think of that vision, I recall that America was founded as the land of
the open door--as a haven for the oppressed, a land of opportunity, a place
of refuge, of hope.
When the first settlers opened the door of America three and a half
centuries ago, they came to escape persecution and to find opportunity--and
they left wide the door of welcome for others to follow.
When the Thirteen Colonies declared their independence almost two centuries
ago, they opened the door to a new vision of liberty and of human
fulfillment--not just for an elite but for all.
To the generations that followed, America's was the open door that beckoned
millions from the old world to the new in search of a better life, a freer
life, a fuller life, and in which, by their own decisions, they could shape
their own destinies.
For the black American, the Indian, the Mexican-American, and for those
others in our land who have not had an equal chance, the Nation at last has
begun to confront the need to press open the door of full and equal
opportunity, and of human dignity.
For all Americans, with these changes I have proposed tonight we can open
the door to a new era of opportunity. We can open the door to full and
effective participation in the decisions that affect their lives. We can
open the door to a new partnership among governments at all levels, between
those governments and the people themselves. And by so doing, we can open
wide the doors of human fulfillment for millions of people here in America
now and in the years to come.
In the next few weeks I will spell out in greater detail the way I propose
that we achieve these six great goals. I ask this Congress to be
responsive. If it is, then the 92d Congress, your Congress, our Congress,
at the end of its term, will be able to look back on a record more splendid
than any in our history.
This can be the Congress that helped us end the longest war in the Nation's
history, and end it in a way that will give us at last a genuine chance to
enjoy what we have not had in this century: a full generation of peace.
This can be the Congress that helped achieve an expanding economy, with
full employment and without inflation--and without the deadly stimulus of
war.
This can be the Congress that reformed a welfare system that has robbed
recipients of their dignity and robbed States and cities of their
resources.
This can be the Congress that pressed forward the rescue of our
environment, and established for the next generation an enduring legacy of
parks for the people.
This can be the Congress that launched a new era in American medicine, in
which the quality of medical care was enhanced while the costs were made
less burdensome.
But above all, what this Congress can be remembered for is opening the way
to a new American revolution--a peaceful revolution in which power was
turned back to the people--in which government at all levels was refreshed
and renewed and made truly responsive. This can be a revolution as
profound, as far-reaching, as exciting as that first revolution almost 200
years ago--and it can mean that just 5 years from now America will enter
its third century as a young nation new in spirit, with all the vigor and
the freshness with which it began its first century.
My colleagues in the Congress, these are great goals. They can make the
sessions of this Congress a great moment for America. So let us pledge
together to go forward together--by achieving these goals to give America
the foundation today for a new greatness tomorrow and in all the years to
come, and in so doing to make this the greatest Congress in the history of
this great and good country.
***
State of the Union Address
Richard Nixon
January 20, 1972
Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our
distinguished guests, my fellow Americans:
Twenty-five years ago I sat here as a freshman Congressman--along with
Speaker Albert--and listened for the first time to the President address
the State of the Union.
I shall never forget that moment. The Senate, the diplomatic corps, the
Supreme Court, the Cabinet entered the Chamber, and then the President of
the United States. As all of you are aware, I had some differences with
President Truman. He had some with me. But I remember that on that day--the
day he addressed that joint session of the newly elected Republican 80th
Congress, he spoke not as a partisan, but as President of all the
people--calling upon the Congress to put aside partisan considerations in
the national interest.
The Greek-Turkish aid program, the Marshall Plan, the great foreign policy
initiatives which have been responsible for avoiding a world war for over
25 years were approved by the 80th Congress, by a bipartisan majority of
which I was proud to be a part.
Nineteen hundred seventy-two is now before us. It holds precious time in
which to accomplish good for the Nation. We must not waste it. I know the
political pressures in this session of the Congress will be great. There
are more candidates for the Presidency in this Chamber today than there
probably have been at any one time in the whole history of the Republic.
And there is an honest difference of opinion, not only between the parties,
but within each party, on some foreign policy issues and on some domestic
policy issues.
However, there are great national problems that are so vital that they
transcend partisanship. So let us have our debates. Let us have our honest
differences. But let us join in keeping the national interest first. Let us
join in making sure that legislation the Nation needs does not become
hostage to the political interests of any party or any person.
There is ample precedent, in this election year, for me to present you with
a huge list of new proposals, knowing full well that there would not be any
possibility of your passing them if you worked night and day.