Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union
Ronald Wilson Reagan
January 25, 1984
Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, distinguished Members of the Congress, honored guests, and fellow citizens:
Once again, in keeping with time-honored tradition, I have come to report to you on the state of the Union, and I'm pleased to report That America is MUCH improved,and there's good reason to believe that improvement will continue through the days to come.
You and I have had some honest and open differences in the year past. But they didn't keep us from joining hands in bipartisan cooperation to stop a long decline that had drained this nation's spirit and eroded its health. There is renewed energy and optimism throughout the land. America back, standing tall, looking to the eighties
with courage, confidence, and hope.
The problems we're overcoming are nol, the heritage of one person, party, or even one generation. It's just the tendency of government to grow, for practices and programs to become the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this Earth.
[Laughter]
And there's always that well-intentioned chorus of voices saying, "With a little more power and a little more money, we could do so much for the people." For a time we forgot the American dream isn't; one of making government bigger; it's
keeping faith with the mighty spirit of free people under God.
As we came to the decade of the eighties we faced the worst crisis in our postwar history. In the seventies were years of problems and falling confidence. There was a feeling government had grown beyond the consent of the governed. Families fell
helpless in the face of mounting inflation and the indignity of taxes that reduced reward for hard work, thrift, and risk-taking. All this was overlaid by an ever growing web of rules and regulations.
On the international scene, we had an, uncomfortable feeling that we'd lost the respect of friend and foe. Some questioned whether we had the will to defend peace and freedom. But America is too great for small dreams. There was a hunger in the land for a spiritual revival; if you will, a crusade for renewal. The American people said: Let us look to the future with confidence, both at home and abroad. Let us give freedom a chance.
Americans were ready to make a new beginning, and together we have done it.We're confronting our problems one by one. Hope is alive tonight for millions of young families and senior citizens set free from unfair tax increases and crushing inflation. Inflation has been beaten down from 12.4 to 3.2 percent, and that's a great victory for all the people. The prime rate has been cut almost in half, and we must work together to bring it down even more.
Together, we passed the first across-the-board tax reduction for everyone since the Kennedy tax cuts. Next year, tax rates will
be indexed so inflation can't push people into higher brackets when they get cost-of-living pay raises. Government must never
again use inflation to profit at the people's expense.
Today a working family earning $25,000 has $1,100 more in purchasing power than if tax and inflation rates were still at the 1980 levels. Real after-tax income increased 5 percent last year. And economic deregulation of key industries like transportation has offered more chances choices, I should say, to consumers and new changes - or chances for entrepreneurs and
protecting safety. Tonight, we can report and be proud of one of the best recoveries in decades. Send away the handwringers and the doubting Thomases. Hope is reborn for couples dreaming of owning homes and for risktakers with vision to create tomorrow's opportunities.
The spirit of enterprise is sparked by the sunrise industries of high-tech and by small business people with big ideas - people like Barbara Proctor, who rose from a ghetto to build a multimillion-dollar advertising agency in Chicago;... (excerpt from Reagan's State of the Union Address, complete document coming soon, check again later).