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.

***

State of the Union Address
William J. Clinton
January 25, 1994

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, members of the 103rd Congress, my fellow
Americans: 

I am not sure what speech is in the TelePrompTer tonight, but I hope we can talk about the State of the Union.

I ask you to begin by recalling the memory of the giant who presided over this chamber with such force and grace.  Tip O’Neill liked to call himself “A Man of the House” and he surely was that.  But even more, he was a man of the people, a bricklayer’s son who helped to build the great American middle class.  Tip O’Neill never forgot who he was, where he came from, or who sent him here.  Tonight he’s smiling down on us for the first time from the Lord’s gallery.  But in his honor, may we too also remember who we are, where we come from, and who sent us here.

If we do that we will return over and over again to the principle that if we simply give ordinary people equal opportunity, quality education, and a fair shot at the American dream, they will do extraordinary things.

We gather tonight in a world of changes so profound and rapid that all nations are tested.  Our American heritage has always been to master such change, to use it to expand opportunity at home, and our leadership abroad.  But for too long and in too many ways, that heritage was abandoned, and our country drifted.

For 30 years family life in America has been breaking down.  For 20 years the wages of working people have been stagnant or declining.  For the 12 years of trickle down economics we built a false prosperity on a hollow base as our national debt quadrupled.  From 1989 to 1992 we experienced the slowest growth in a half century.  For too many families, even when both parents were working, the American dream has been slipping away.