For 13 years, Elaine Kinslow of Indianapolis, Indiana was on and off welfare.  Today she’s a dispatcher with a van company.  She’s saved enough money to move her family into a good neighborhood.  And she’s helping other welfare recipients go to work.

Elaine Kinslow and all those like her are the real heroes of the welfare revolution.  There are millions like her all across America, and I am happy she could join the first lady tonight.  Elaine, we’re very proud of you.  Please stand up.

We still have a lot more to do, all of us, to make welfare reform a success; providing child care, helping families move closer to available jobs, challenging more companies to join our Welfare to Work Partnership, increasing child-support collections from deadbeat parents who have a duty to support their own children.  I also want to thank Congress for restoring some of the benefits to immigrants who are here legally and working hard.  And I hope you will finish that job this year.

We have to make it possible for all hard-working families to meet their most important responsibilities.  Two years ago, we helped guarantee that Americans can keep their health insurance when they changed jobs.  Last year, we extended health care to up to 5 million children.  This year, I challenge Congress to take the next historic steps.  A hundred and sixty million of our fellow citizens are in managed care plans.  These plans save money, and they can improve care.  But medical decisions ought to be made by medical doctors, not insurance company accountants.

I urge this Congress to reach across the aisle and write into law a consumer bill of rights that says this:  You have the right to know all your medical options, not just the cheapest.  You have the right to choose the doctor you want for the care you need.  You have the right to emergency room care wherever and whenever you need it.  You have the right to keep your medical records confidential.

Now, traditional care or managed care, every American deserves quality care.  Millions of Americans between the ages of 55 and 65 have lost their health insurance.  Some are retired.  Some are laid off.  Some lose their coverage when their spouses retire.  After a lifetime of work, they’re left with nowhere to turn.

So I ask the Congress, let these hard-working Americans buy into the Medicare system.  It won’t add a dime to the deficit, but the peace of mind it will provide will be priceless.

Next, we must help parents protect their children from the gravest health threat that they face:  an epidemic of teen smoking spread by multimillion dollar marketing campaigns.  I challenge Congress.  Let’s pass bipartisan, comprehensive legislation that will improve public health, protect our tobacco farmers, and change the way tobacco companies do business forever.

Let’s do what it takes to bring teen smoking down.  Let’s raise the price of cigarettes by up to $1.50 a pack over the next 10 years, with penalties on the tobacco industry if it keeps marketing to our children.