Americans are the most generous people on Earth.  But we have to go back to the insight of Franklin Roosevelt who, when he spoke of what became the welfare program, want that it must not become a narcotic and a subtle destroyer of the spirit.  Welfare was never meant to be a life style.  It was never meant to be a habit.  It was never supposed to be passed on from generation to generation like a legacy.  It’s time to replace the assumptions of the welfare state and help reform the welfare system.

States throughout the country are beginning to operate with new assumptions:  that when able-bodied people receive government assistance they have responsibilities to the taxpayer.  A responsibility to seek work, education, or job training.  A responsibility to get their lives in order.  A responsibility to hold their families together and refrain from having children out of wedlock.  And a responsibility to obey the law.  We are going to help this movement.  Often, state reform requires waiving certain federal regulations.  I will act to make that process easier and quicker for every state that asks our help.  And I want to add, as we make these changes, we work together to improve this system, that our intention is not scapegoating and finger-pointing.  If you read the papers or watch TV you know there’s been a rise these days in a certain kind of ugliness:  racist comments, anti-Semitism, an increased sense of division.  Really, this is not us.  This is not who we are.  And this is not acceptable.

And so you have my plan for America.  And I am asking for big things, but I believe in my heart you will do what’s right.

And you know, it’s kind of an American tradition to show a certain skepticism toward our democratic institutions.  I myself have sometimes thought the aging process could be delayed if it had to make its way through Congress.  But you will deliberate, and you will discuss, and that is fine.  But my friends the people cannot wait.  They need help now.  And there’s a mood among us.  People are worried.  There has been talk of decline.  Someone even said our workers are lazy and uninspired.  And I thought, “Really?  Go tell Neil Armstrong standing on the moon.  Tell the American farmer who feeds his country and the world.  Tell the men and women of Desert Storm.”  Moods come and go, but greatness endures.  Our does.

And maybe for a moment it’s good to remember what, in the dailyness of our lives, we forget.  We are still and ever the freest nation on Earth, the kindest nation on Earth, the strongest nation on Earth.  And we have always risen to the occasion.  And we are going to lift this nation out of hard times inch by inch and day by day, and those who would stop us better step aside.  Because I look at hard times and I make this vow:  This will not stand.  And so we move on, together, a rising nation, the once and future miracle that is still, this night, the hope of the world.

*** End of the project gutenberg EBOOK of addresses by George H.W.  Bush ***