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President[ Ronald Reagan

         Date[ January 27, 1987

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, distinguished Members of Congress, honored

guests, and fellow citizens:

May I congratulate all of you who are Members of this historic 100th

Congress of the United States of America. In this 200th anniversary year of

our Constitution, you and I stand on the shoulders of giants--men whose

words and deeds put wind in the sails of freedom. However, we must always

remember that our Constitution is to be celebrated not for being old, but

for being young--young with the same energy, spirit, and promise that

filled each eventful day in Philadelphia's statehouse. We will be guided

tonight by their acts, and we will be guided forever by their words.

Now, forgive me, but I can't resist sharing a story from those historic

days. Philadelphia was bursting with civic pride in the spring of 1787, and

its newspapers began embellishing the arrival of the Convention delegates

with elaborate social classifications. Governors of States were called

Excellency. Justices and Chancellors had reserved for them honorable with a

capital "H." For Congressmen, it was honorable with a small "h." And all

others were referred to as "the following respectable characters." Well,

for this 100th Congress, I invoke special executive powers to declare that

each of you must never be titled less than honorable with a capital "H."

Incidentally, I'm delighted you are celebrating the 100th birthday of the

Congress. It's always a pleasure to congratulate someone with more

birthdays than I've had.

Now, there's a new face at this place of honor tonight. And please join me

in warm congratulations to the Speaker of the House, Jim Wright. Mr.

Speaker, you might recall a similar situation in your very first session of

Congress 32 years ago. Then, as now, the speakership had changed hands and

another great son of Texas, Sam Rayburn--"Mr. Sam"--sat in your chair. I

cannot find better words than those used by President Eisenhower that

evening. He said, "We shall have much to do together; I am sure that we

will get it done and that we shall do it in harmony and good will." Tonight

I renew that pledge. To you, Mr. Speaker, and to Senate Majority Leader

Robert Byrd, who brings 34 years of distinguished service to the Congress,

may I say: Though there are changes in the Congress, America's interests

remain the same. And I am confident that, along with Republican leaders Bob

Michel and Bob Dole, this Congress can make history.

Six years ago I was here to ask the Congress to join me in America's new

beginning. Well, the results are something of which we can all be proud.

Our inflation rate is now the lowest in a quarter of a century. The prime

interest rate has fallen from the 21 1/2 percent the month before we took

office to 7 1/2 percent today. And those rates have triggered the most

housing starts in 8 years. The unemployment rate--still too high--is the

lowest in nearly 7 years, and our people have created nearly 13 million new

jobs. Over 61 percent of everyone over the age of 16, male and female, is

employed--the highest percentage on record. Let's roll up our sleeves and

go to work and put America's economic engine at full throttle. We can also

be heartened by our progress across the world. Most important, America is

at peace tonight, and freedom is on the march. And we've done much these

past years to restore our defenses, our alliances, and our leadership in

the world. Our sons and daughters in the services once again wear their

uniforms with pride.

But though we've made much progress, I have one major regret: I took a risk

with regard to our action in Iran. It did not work, and for that I assume

full responsibility. The goals were worthy. I do not believe it was wrong

to try to establish contacts with a country of strategic importance or to

try to save lives. And certainly it was not wrong to try to secure freedom

for our citizens held in barbaric captivity. But we did not achieve what we

wished, and serious mistakes were made in trying to do so. We will get to

the bottom of this, and I will take whatever action is called for. But in

debating the past, we must not deny ourselves the successes of the future.

Let it never be said of this generation of Americans that we became so

obsessed with failure that we refused to take risks that could further the

cause of peace and freedom in the world. Much is at stake here, and the

Nation and the world are watching to see if we go forward together in the

national interest or if we let partisanship weaken us. And let there be no

mistake about American policy: We will not sit idly by if our interests or

our friends in the Middle East are threatened, nor will we yield to

terrorist blackmail.

And now, ladies and gentlemen of the Congress, why don't we get to work? I

am pleased to report that because of our efforts to rebuild the strength of

America, the world is a safer place. Earlier this month I submitted a

budget to defend America and maintain our momentum to make up for neglect

in the last decade. Well, I ask you to vote out a defense and foreign

affairs budget that says yes to protecting our country. While the world is

safer, it is not safe.

Since 1970 the Soviets have invested $500 billion more on their military

forces than we have. Even today, though nearly 1 in 3 Soviet families is

without running hot water and the average family spends 2 hours a day

shopping for the basic necessities of life, their government still found

the resources to transfer $75 billion in weapons to client states in the

past 5 years--clients like Syria, Vietnam, Cuba, Libya, Angola, Ethiopia,

Afghanistan, and Nicaragua. With 120,000 Soviet combat and military

personnel and 15,000 military advisers in Asia, Africa, and Latin America,

can anyone still doubt their single-minded determination to expand their

power? Despite this, the Congress cut my request for critical U.S. security

assistance to free nations by 21 percent this year, and cut defense

requests by $85 billion in the last 3 years.

These assistance programs serve our national interests as well as mutual

interests. And when the programs are devastated, American interests are

harmed. My friends, it's my duty as President to say to you again tonight

that there is no surer way to lose freedom than to lose our resolve. Today

the brave people of Afghanistan are showing that resolve. The Soviet Union

says it wants a peaceful settlement in Afghanistan, yet it continues a

brutal war and props up a regime whose days are clearly numbered. We are

ready to support a political solution that guarantees the rapid withdrawal

of all Soviet troops and genuine self-determination for the Afghan people.

In Central America, too, the cause of freedom is being tested. And our

resolve is being tested there as well. Here, especially, the world is

watching to see how this nation responds. Today over 90 percent of the

people of Latin America live in democracy. Democracy is on the march in

Central and South America. Communist Nicaragua is the odd man

out--suppressing the church, the press, and democratic dissent and

promoting subversion in the region. We support diplomatic efforts, but

these efforts can never succeed if the Sandinistas win their war against

the Nicaraguan people.

Our commitment to a Western Hemisphere safe from aggression did not occur

by spontaneous generation on the day that we took office. It began with the

Monroe Doctrine in 1823 and continues our historic bipartisan American

policy. Franklin Roosevelt said we "are determined to do everything

possible to maintain peace on this hemisphere." President Truman was very

blunt: "International communism seeks to crush and undermine and destroy

the independence of the Americas. We cannot let that happen here." And John

F. Kennedy made clear that "Communist domination in this hemisphere can

never be negotiated." Some in this Congress may choose to depart from this

historic commitment, but I will not.

This year we celebrate the second century of our Constitution. The

Sandinistas just signed theirs 2 weeks ago, and then suspended it. We won't

know how my words tonight will be reported there for one simple reason:

There is no free press in Nicaragua. Nicaraguan freedom fighters have never

asked us to wage their battle, but I will fight any effort to shut off

their lifeblood and consign them to death, defeat, or a life without

freedom. There must be no Soviet beachhead in Central America.

You know, we Americans have always preferred dialog to conflict, and so, we

always remain open to more constructive relations with the Soviet Union.

But more responsible Soviet conduct around the world is a key element of

the U.S.-Soviet agenda. Progress is also required on the other items of our

agenda as well--real respect for human rights and more open contacts

between our societies and, of course, arms reduction.

In Iceland, last October, we had one moment of opportunity that the Soviets

dashed because they sought to cripple our Strategic Defense Initiative,

SDI. I wouldn't let them do it then; I won't let them do it now or in the

future. This is the most positive and promising defense program we have

undertaken. It's the path, for both sides, to a safer future--a system that

defends human life instead of threatening it. SDI will go forward. The

United States has made serious, fair, and far-reaching proposals to the

Soviet Union, and this is a moment of rare opportunity for arms reduction.

But I will need, and American negotiators in Geneva will need, Congress'

support. Enacting the Soviet negotiating position into American law would

not be the way to win a good agreement. So, I must tell you in this

Congress I will veto any effort that undercuts our national security and

our negotiating leverage.

Now, today, we also find ourselves engaged in expanding peaceful commerce

across the world. We will work to expand our opportunities in international

markets through the Uruguay round of trade negotiations and to complete an

historic free trade arrangement between the world's two largest trading

partners, Canada and the United States. Our basic trade policy remains the

same: We remain opposed as ever to protectionism, because America's growth

and future depend on trade. But we would insist on trade that is fair and

free. We are always willing to be trade partners but never trade patsies.

Now, from foreign borders let us return to our own, because America in the

world is only as strong as America at home. This 100th Congress has high

responsibilities. I begin with a gentle reminder that many of these are

simply the incomplete obligations of the past. The American people deserve

to be impatient, because we do not yet have the public house in order.

We've had great success in restoring our economic integrity, and we've

rescued our nation from the worst economic mess since the Depression. But

there's more to do. For starters, the Federal deficit is outrageous. For

years I've asked that we stop pushing onto our children the excesses of our

government. And what the Congress finally needs to do is pass a

constitutional amendment that mandates a balanced budget and forces

government to live within its means. States, cities, and the families of

America balance their budgets. Why can't we?

Next, the budget process is a sorry spectacle. The missing of deadlines and

the nightmare of monstrous continuing resolutions packing hundreds of

billions of dollars of spending into one bill must be stopped. We ask the

Congress once again: Give us the same tool that 43 Governors have--a

lineitem veto so we can carve out the boondoggles and pork, those items

that would never survive on their own. I will send the Congress broad

recommendations on the budget, but first I'd like to see yours. Let's go to

work and get this done together.

But now let's talk about this year's budget. Even though I have submitted

it within the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings deficit reduction target, I have seen

suggestions that we might postpone that timetable. Well, I think the

American people are tired of hearing the same old excuses. Together we made

a commitment to balance the budget. Now let's keep it. As for those

suggestions that the answer is higher taxes, the American people have

repeatedly rejected that shop-worn advice. They know that we don't have

deficits because people are taxed too little. We have deficits because big

government spends too much.

Now, next month I'll place two additional reforms before the Congress.

We've created a welfare monster that is a shocking indictment of our sense

of priorities. Our national welfare system consists of some 59 major

programs and over 6,000 pages of Federal laws and regulations on which more

than $132 billion was spent in 1985. I will propose a new national welfare

strategy, a program of welfare reform through State-sponsored,

community-based demonstration projects. This is the time to reform this

outmoded social dinosaur and finally break the poverty trap. Now, we will

never abandon those who, through no fault of their own, must have our help.

But let us work to see how many can be freed from the dependency of welfare

and made self-supporting, which the great majority of welfare recipients

want more than anything else. Next, let us remove a financial specter

facing our older Americans: the fear of an illness so expensive that it can

result in having to make an intolerable choice between bankruptcy and

death. I will submit legislation shortly to help free the elderly from the

fear of catastrophic illness.

Now let's turn to the future. It's widely said that America is losing her

competitive edge. Well, that won't happen if we act now. How well prepared

are we to enter the 21st century? In my lifetime, America set the standard

for the world. It is now time to determine that we should enter the next

century having achieved a level of excellence unsurpassed in history. We

will achieve this, first, by guaranteeing that government does everything

possible to promote America's ability to compete. Second, we must act as

individuals in a quest for excellence that will not be measured by new

proposals or billions in new funding. Rather, it involves an expenditure of

American spirit and just plain American grit. The Congress will soon

receive my comprehensive proposals to enhance our competitiveness,

including new science and technology centers and strong new funding for

basic research. The bill will include legal and regulatory reforms and

weapons to fight unfair trade practices. Competitiveness also means giving

our farmers a shot at participating fairly and fully in a changing world

market.

Preparing for the future must begin, as always, with our children. We need

to set for them new and more rigorous goals. We must demand more of

ourselves and our children by raising literacy levels dramatically by the

year 2000. Our children should master the basic concepts of math and

science, and let's insist that students not leave high school until they

have studied and understood the basic documents of our national heritage.

There's one more thing we can't let up on: Let's redouble our personal

efforts to provide for every child a safe and drug-free learning

environment. If our crusade against drugs succeeds with our children, we

will defeat that scourge all over the country.

Finally, let's stop suppressing the spiritual core of our national being.

Our nation could not have been conceived without divine help. Why is it

that we can build a nation with our prayers, but we can't use a schoolroom

for voluntary prayer? The 100th Congress of the United States should be

remembered as the one that ended the expulsion of God from America's

classrooms.

The quest for excellence into the 21st century begins in the schoolroom but

must go next to the workplace. More than 20 million new jobs will be

created before the new century unfolds, and by then, our economy should be

able to provide a job for everyone who wants to work. We must also enable

our workers to adapt to the rapidly changing nature of the workplace. And I

will propose substantial, new Federal commitments keyed to retraining and

job mobility.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be sending the Congress a complete series of

these special messages--on budget reform, welfare reform, competitiveness,

including education, trade, worker training and assistance, agriculture,

and other subjects. The Congress can give us these tools, but to make these

tools work, it really comes down to just being our best. And that is the

core of American greatness. The responsibility of freedom presses us

towards higher knowledge and, I believe, moral and spiritual greatness.

Through lower taxes and smaller government, government has its ways of

freeing people's spirits. But only we, each of us, can let the spirit soar

against our own individual standards. Excellence is what makes freedom

ring. And isn't that what we do best?

We're entering our third century now, but it's wrong to judge our nation by

its years. The calendar can't measure America because we were meant to be

an endless experiment in freedom--with no limit to our reaches, no

boundaries to what we can do, no end point to our hopes. The United States

Constitution is the impassioned and inspired vehicle by which we travel

through history. It grew out of the most fundamental inspiration of our

existence: that we are here to serve Him by living free--that living free

releases in us the noblest of impulses and the best of our abilities; that

we would use these gifts for good and generous purposes and would secure

them not just for ourselves and for our children but for all mankind.

Over the years--I won't count if you don't--nothing has been so

heartwarming to me as speaking to America's young, and the little ones

especially, so fresh-faced and so eager to know. Well, from time to time

I've been with them--they will ask about our Constitution. And I hope you

Members of Congress will not deem this a breach of protocol if you'll

permit me to share these thoughts again with the young people who might be

listening or watching this evening. I've read the constitutions of a number

of countries, including the Soviet Union's. Now, some people are surprised

to hear that they have a constitution, and it even supposedly grants a

number of freedoms to its people. Many countries have written into their

constitution provisions for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

Well, if this is true, why is the Constitution of the United States so

exceptional?

Well, the difference is so small that it almost escapes you, but it's so

great it tells you the whole story in just three words: We the people. In

those other constitutions, the Government tells the people of those

countries what they're allowed to do. In our Constitution, we the people

tell the Government what it can do, and it can do only those things listed

in that document and no others. Virtually every other revolution in history

has just exchanged one set of rulers for another set of rulers. Our

revolution is the first to say the people are the masters and government is

their servant. And you young people out there, don't ever forget that.

Someday you could be in this room, but wherever you are, America is

depending on you to reach your highest and be your best--because here in

America, we the people are in charge.

Just three words: We the people--those are the kids on Christmas Day

looking out from a frozen sentry post on the 38th parallel in Korea or

aboard an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. A million miles from home,

but doing their duty.

We the people--those are the warmhearted whose numbers we can't begin to

count, who'll begin the day with a little prayer for hostages they will

never know and MIA families they will never meet. Why? Because that's the

way we are, this unique breed we call Americans.

We the people--they're farmers on tough times, but who never stop feeding a

hungry world. They're the volunteers at the hospital choking back their

tears for the hundredth time, caring for a baby struggling for life because

of a mother who used drugs. And you'll forgive me a special memory--it's a

million mothers like Nelle Reagan who never knew a stranger or turned a

hungry person away from her kitchen door.

We the people--they refute last week's television commentary downgrading

our optimism and our idealism. They are the entrepreneurs, the builders,

the pioneers, and a lot of regular folks--the true heroes of our land who

make up the most uncommon nation of doers in history. You know they're

Americans because their spirit is as big as the universe and their hearts

are bigger than their spirits.

We the people--starting the third century of a dream and standing up to

some cynic who's trying to tell us we're not going to get any better. Are

we at the end? Well, I can't tell it any better than the real thing--a

story recorded by James Madison from the final moments of the

Constitutional Convention, September 17th, 1787. As the last few members

signed the document, Benjamin Franklin--the oldest delegate at 81 years and

in frail health--looked over toward the chair where George Washington daily

presided. At the back of the chair was painted the picture of a Sun on the

horizon. And turning to those sitting next to him, Franklin observed that

artists found it difficult in their painting to distinguish between a

rising and a setting Sun.

Well, I know if we were there, we could see those delegates sitting around

Franklin--leaning in to listen more closely to him. And then Dr. Franklin

began to share his deepest hopes and fears about the outcome of their

efforts, and this is what he said: "I have often looked at that picture

behind the President without being able to tell whether it was a rising or

setting Sun: But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a

rising and not a setting Sun." Well, you can bet it's rising because, my

fellow citizens, America isn't finished. Her best days have just begun.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

NOTE: The President spoke at 9:03 p.m. in the House Chamber of the Capitol.

He was introduced by Jim Wright, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The address was broadcast live on nationwide radio and television.

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