克林顿2000年国情咨文演说

克林顿2000年国情咨文演说 英文版

Thursday, January 27, 2000

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, honored guests, my fellow Americans:

We are fortunate to be alive at this moment in history. Never before has our nation enjoyed, at once, so much prosperity and social progress with so little internal crisis and so few external threats. Never before have we had such a blessed opportunity—and, therefore, such a profound obligation—to build the more perfect union of our founders' dreams.

We begin the new century with over 20 million new jobs; the fastest economic growth in more than 30 years; the lowest unemployment rates in 30 years; the lowest poverty rates in 20 years; the lowest African American and Hispanic unemployment rates on record; the first back-to-back budget surpluses in 42 years. And next month, America will achieve the longest period of economic growth in our entire history.

We have built a new economy.

And our economic revolution has been matched by a revival of the American spirit: crime down by 20 percent, to its lowest level in 25 years; teen births down seven years in a row; adoptions up by 30 percent; welfare rolls cut in half to their lowest levels in 30 years.

My fellow Americans, the state of our union is the strongest it has ever been.

As always, the real credit belongs to the American people. My gratitude also goes to those of you in this chamber who have worked with us to put progress over partisanship. Eight years ago, it was not so clear to most Americans there would be much to celebrate in the year 2000. Then our nation was gripped by economic distress, social decline, political gridlock. The title of a best-selling book asked: "America: What Went Wrong?"

In the best traditions of our nation, Americans determined to set things right. We restored the vital center, replacing outmoded ideologies with a new vision anchored in basic, enduring values: opportunity for all, responsibility from all, a community of all Americans. We reinvented government, transforming it into a catalyst for new ideas that stress both opportunity and responsibility, and give our people the tools they need to solve their own problems.

With the smallest federal work force in 40 years, we turned record deficits into record surpluses, and doubled our investment in education. We cut crime, with 100,000 community police and the Brady law, which has kept guns out of the hands of half a million criminals.

We ended welfare as we knew it—requiring work while protecting health care and nutrition for children, and investing more in child care, transportation, and housing to help their parents go to work. We've helped parents to succeed at home and at work, with family leave, which 20 millions Americans have now used to care for a newborn child or a sick loved one. We've engaged 150,000 young Americans in citizen service through AmeriCorps, while helping them earn money for college.

In 1992, we just had a road map; today, we have results.

But even more important, America again has the confidence to dream big dreams. But we must not let this confidence drift into complacency. For we, all of us, will be judged by the dreams and deeds we pass on to our children. And on that score, we will be held to a high standard, indeed, because our chance to do good is so great.

My fellow Americans, we have crossed the bridge we built to the 21st century. Now, we must shape a 21st century American revolution—of opportunity, responsibility and community. We must be now, as we were in the beginning, a new nation.

At the dawn of the last century, Theodore Roosevelt said, "the one characteristic more essential than any other is foresight…it should be the growing nation with a future that takes the long look ahead." So, tonight, let us take our long look ahead and set great goals for our nation.

To 21st century America, let us pledge these things: Every child will begin school ready to learn and graduate ready to succeed. Every family will be able to succeed at home and at work, and no child will be raised in poverty. We will meet the challenge of the aging of America. We will assure quality, affordable health care, at last, for all Americans.

We will make America the safest big country on Earth. We will pay off our national debt for the first time since 1835. We will bring prosperity to every American community. We will reverse the course of climate change and leave a safer, cleaner planet. America will lead the world toward shared peace and prosperity, and the far frontiers of science and technology. And we will become at last what our founders pledged us to be so long ago—one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

These are great goals, worthy of a great nation. We will not reach them all this year. Not even in this decade. But we will reach them. Let us remember that the first American Revolution was not won with a single shot; the continent was not settled in a single year. The lesson of our history—and the lesson of the last seven years—is that great goals are reached step by step, always building on our progress, always gaining ground.

Of course, you can't gain ground if you're standing still. And for too long this Congress has been standing still on some of our most pressing national priorities. So let's begin tonight with them.

Again, I ask you to pass a real patients' bill of rights. I ask you to pass common-sense gun safety legislation. I ask you to pass campaign finance reform. I ask you to vote up or down on judicial nominations and other important appointees. And, again I ask you—I implore you—to raise the minimum wage.

Now, two years ago—let me try to balance the seesaw here—two years ago, as we reached across party lines to reach our first balanced budget, I asked that we meet our responsibility to the next generation by maintaining our fiscal discipline. Because we refused to stray from that path, we are doing something that would have seemed unimaginable seven years ago. We are actually paying down the national debt.

Now, if we stay on this path, we can pay down the debt entirely in 13 just years now and make America debt-free for the first time since Andrew Jackson was President in 1835.

In 1993, we began to put our fiscal house in order with the Deficit Reduction Act, which you'll all remember won passages in both Houses by just a single vote. Your former colleague, my first Secretary of the Treasury, led that effort and sparked our long boom. He's here with us tonight. Lloyd Bentsen, you have served America well, and we thank you.

Beyond paying off the debt, we must ensure that the benefits of debt reduction go to preserving two of the most important guarantees we make to every American—Social Security and Medicare. Tonight, I ask you to work with me to make a bipartisan down payment on Social Security reform by crediting the interest savings from debt reduction to the Social Security Trust Fund so that it will be strong and sound for the next 50 years.

But this is just the start of our journey. We must also take the right steps toward reaching our great goals. First and foremost, we need a 21st century revolution in education, guided by our faith that every single child can learn. Because education is more important than ever, more than ever the key to our children's future, we must make sure all our children have that key. That means quality pre-school and after-school, the best trained teachers in the classroom, and college opportunities for all our children.

For seven years now, we've worked hard to improve our schools, with opportunity and responsibility—investing more, but demanding more in turn. Reading, math, college entrance scores are up. Some of the most impressive gains are in schools in very poor neighborhoods.

But all successful schools have followed the same proven formula: higher standards, more accountability, and extra help so children who need it can get it to reach those standards. I have sent Congress a reform plan based on that formula. It holds states and school districts accountable for progress, and rewards them for results. Each year, our national government invests more than $15 billion in our schools. It is time to support what works and stop supporting what doesn't.

Now, as we demand more from our schools, we should also invest more in our schools. Let's double our investment to help states and districts turn around their worst-performing schools, or shut them down. Let's double our investments in after-school and summer school programs, which boost achievement and keep people off the streets and out of trouble. If we do this, we can give every single child in every failing school in America—everyone—the chance to meet high standards.

Since 1993, we've nearly doubled our investment in Head Start and improved its quality. Tonight, I ask you for another $1 billion for Head Start, the largest increase in the history of the program.

We know that children learn best in smaller classes with good teachers. For two years in a row, Congress has supported my plan to hire 100,000 new qualified teachers to lower class size in the early grades. I thank you for that, and I ask you to make it three in a row. And to make sure all teachers know the subjects they teach, tonight I propose a new teacher quality initiative—to recruit more talented people into the classroom, reward good teachers for staying there, and give all teachers the training they need.

We know charter schools provide real public school choice. When I became President, there was just one independent public charter school in all America. Today, thanks to you, there are 1,700. I ask you now to help us meet our goal of 3,000 charter schools by next year.

We know we must connect all our classrooms to the Internet, and we're getting there. In 1994, only 3 percent of our classrooms were connected. Today, with the help of the Vice President's E-rate program, more than half of them are. And 90 percent of our schools have at least one Internet connection.

But we cannot finish the job when a third of all our schools are in serious disrepair. Many of them have walls and wires so old, they're too old for the Internet. So tonight, I propose to help 5,000 schools a year make immediate and urgent repairs; and again, to help build or modernize 6,000 more, to get students out of trailers and into high-tech classrooms.

I ask all of you to help me double our bipartisan Gear-Up program, which provides mentors for disadvantaged young people. If we double it, we can provide mentors for 1.4 million of them. Let's also offer these kids from disadvantaged backgrounds the same chance to take the same college test-prep courses wealthier students use to boost their test scores.

To make the American Dream achievable for all, we must make college affordable for all. For seven years, on a bipartisan basis, we have taken action toward that goal: larger Pell grants, more affordable student loans, education IRAs, and our HOPE scholarships, which have already benefitted 5 million young people.

Now, 67 percent of high school graduates are going on to college. That's up 10 percent since 1993. Yet millions of families still strain to pay college tuition. They need help. So I propose a landmark $30-billion college opportunity tax cut—a middle class tax deduction for up to $10,000 in college tuition costs. The previous actions of this Congress have already made two years of college affordable for all. It's time to make four years of college affordable for all. If we take all these steps, we'll move a long way toward making sure every child starts school ready to learn and graduates ready to succeed.

We need a 21st century revolution to reward work and strengthen families, by giving every parent the tools to succeed at work and at the most important work of all—raising children. That means making sure every family has health care and the support to care for aging parents, the tools to bring their children up right, and that no child grows up in poverty.

From my first days as President, we've worked to give families better access to better health care. In 1997, we passed the Children's Health Insurance Program—CHIP—so that workers who don't have coverage through their employers at least can get it for their children. So far, we've enrolled 2 million children; we're well on our way to our goal of 5 million.

But there are still more than 40 million of our fellow Americans without health insurance—more than there were in 1993. Tonight I propose that we follow Vice President Gore's suggestion to make low income parents eligible for the insurance that covers their children. Together with our children's initiative—think of this—together with our children's initiative, this action would enable us to cover nearly a quarter of all the uninsured people in America.

Again, I want to ask you to let people between the ages of 55 and 65—the fastest growing group of uninsured—buy into Medicare. And this year I propose to give them a tax credit to make that choice an affordable one. I hope you will support that, as well.

When the baby boomers retire, Medicare will be faced with caring for twice as many of our citizens; yet, it is far from ready to do so. My generation must not ask our children's generation to shoulder our burden. We simply must act now to strengthen and modernize Medicare.

My budget includes a comprehensive plan to reform Medicare, to make it more efficient and competitive. And it dedicates nearly $400 billion of our budget surplus to keep Medicare solvent past 2025. And, at long last, it also provides funds to give every senior a voluntary choice of affordable coverage for prescription drugs.

Lifesaving drugs are an indispensable part of modern medicine. No one creating a Medicare program today would even think of excluding coverage for prescription drugs. Yet more than three in five of our seniors now lack dependable drug coverage which can lengthen and enrich their lives. Millions of older Americans who need prescription drugs the most pay the highest prices for them. In good conscience, we cannot let another year pass without extending to all our seniors this lifeline of affordable prescription drugs.

Record numbers of Americans are providing for aging or ailing loved ones at home. It's a loving, but a difficult and often very expensive choice. Last year, I proposed a $1,000 tax credit for long-term care. Frankly, it wasn't enough. This year, let's triple it, to $3,000. But this year, let's pass it.

We also have to make needed investments to expand access to mental health care. I want to take a moment to thank the person who led our first White House Conference on Mental Health last year, and who for seven years has led all our efforts to break down the barriers to decent treatment of people with mental illness. Thank you, Tipper Gore.

Taken together, these proposals would mark the largest investment in health care in the 35 years since Medicare was created—the largest investment in 35 years. That would be a big step toward assuring quality health care for all Americans, young and old. And I ask you to embrace them and pass them.

We must also make investments that reward work and support families. Nothing does that better than the Earned Income Tax Credit—the EITC. The "E" in the EITC is about earning, working, taking responsibility and being rewarded for it. In my very first address to you, I asked Congress to greatly expand this credit; and you did. As a result, in 1998 alone, the EITC helped more than 4.3 million Americans work their way out of poverty toward the middle class. That's double the number in 1993.

Tonight, I propose another major expansion of the EITC: to reduce the marriage penalty, to make sure it rewards marriage as it rewards work—and also, to expand the tax credit for families that have more than two children. It punishes people with more than two children today. Our proposal would allow families with three or more children to get up to $1,100 more in tax relief. These are working families; their children should not be in poverty.

We also can't reward work and family unless men and women get equal pay for equal work. Today, the female unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in 46 years. Yet, women still only earn about 75 cents for every dollar men earn. We must do better, by providing the resources to enforce present equal pay laws; training more women for high-paying, high-tech jobs; and passing the Paycheck Fairness Act.

Many working parents spend up to a quarter—a quarter—of their income on child care. Last year, we helped parents provide child care for about 2 million children. My child care initiative, before you now, along with funds already secured in welfare reform, would make child care better, safer and more affordable for another 400,000 children. I ask you to pass that. They need it out there.

For hard-pressed middle-income families, we should also expand the child care tax credit. And I believe strongly we should take the next big step and make that tax credit refundable for low-income families. For people making under $30,000 a year, that could mean up to $2,400 for child care costs. You know, we all say we're pro-work and pro-family. Passing this proposal would prove it.

Tens of millions of Americans live from paycheck to paycheck. As hard as they work, they still don't have the opportunity to save. Too few can make use of IRAs and 401-K plans. We should do more to help all working families save and accumulate wealth. That's the idea behind the Individual Development Accounts, the IDAs. I ask you to take that idea to a new level, with new Retirement Savings Accounts that enable every low- and moderate-income family in America to save for retirement, a first home, a medical emergency, or a college education. I propose to match their contributions, however small, dollar for dollar, every year they save. And I propose to give a major new tax credit to any small business that will provide a meaningful pension to its workers. Those people ought to have retirement as well as the rest of us.

Nearly one in three American children grows up without a father. These children are five times more likely to live in poverty than children with both parents at home. Clearly, demanding and supporting responsible fatherhood is critical to lifting all children out of poverty. We've doubled child support collections since 1992. And I'm proposing to you tough new measures to hold still more fathers responsible.

But we should recognize that a lot of fathers want to do right by their children, but need help to do it. Carlos Rosas of St. Paul, Minnesota, wanted to do right by his son, and he got the help to do it. Now he's got a good job and he supports his little boy. My budget will help 40,000 more fathers make the same choices Carlos Rosas did. I thank him for being here tonight. Stand up, Carlos. Thank you.

If there is any single issue on which we should be able to reach across party lines, it is in our common commitment to reward work and strengthen families, similar to what we did last year. We came together to help people with disabilities keep their health insurance when they go to work. And I thank you for that. Thanks to overwhelming bipartisan support from this Congress, we have improved foster care. We've helped those young people who leave it when they turn 18, and we have dramatically increased the number of foster care children going into adoptive homes. I thank all of you for all of that.

Of course, I am forever grateful to the person who has led our efforts from the beginning, and who's worked so tirelessly for children and families for 30 years now: my wife, Hillary. And I thank her.

If we take the steps I've just discussed, we can go a long, long way toward empowering parents to succeed at home and at work, and ensuring that no child is raised in poverty. We can make these vital investments in health care, education, support for working families, and still offer tax cuts to help pay for college, for retirement, to care for aging parents, to reduce the marriage penalty. We can do these things without forsaking the path of fiscal discipline that got us to this point here tonight.

Indeed, we must make these investments and these tax cuts in the context of a balanced budget that strengthens and extends the life of Social Security and Medicare and pays down the national debt.

Crime in America has dropped for the past seven years—that's the longest decline on record—thanks to a national consensus we helped to forge on community police, sensible gun safety laws, and effective prevention. But nobody—nobody here, nobody in America—believes we're safe enough. So again, I ask you to set a higher goal. Let's make this country the safest big country in the world.

Last fall, Congress supported my plan to hire, in addition to the 100,000 community police we've already funded, 50,000 more, concentrated in high-crime neighborhoods. I ask your continued support for that.

Soon after the Columbine tragedy, Congress considered common-sense gun legislation, to require Brady background checks at the gun shows, child safety locks for new handguns, and a ban on the importation of large-capacity ammunition clips. With courage and a tie-breaking vote by the Vice President—the Senate faced down the gun lobby, stood up for the American people, and passed this legislation. But the House failed to follow suit.

Now, we have all seen what happens when guns fall into the wrong hands. Daniel Mauser was only 15 years old when he was gunned down at Columbine. He was an amazing kid , a straight-A student, a good skier. Like all parents who lose their children, his father Tom has borne unimaginable grief. Somehow he has found the strength to honor his son by transforming his grief into action. Earlier this month, he took a leave of absence from his job to fight for tougher gun safety laws. I pray that his courage and wisdom will at long last move this Congress to make common-sense gun legislation the very next order of business.Tom Mauser, stand up. We thank you for being here tonight. Tom. Thank you, Tom.

We must strengthen our gun laws and enforce those already on the books better. Federal gun crime prosecutions are up 16 percent since I took office. But we must do more. I propose to hire more federal and local gun prosecutors and more ATF agents to crack down on illegal gun traffickers and bad-apple dealers. And we must give them the enforcement tools that they need, tools to trace every gun and every bullet used in every gun crime in the United States. I ask you to help us do that.

Every state in this country already requires hunters and automobile drivers to have a license. I think they ought to do the same thing for handgun purchases. Now, specifically, I propose a plan to ensure that all new handgun buyers must first have a photo license from their state showing they passed the Brady background check and a gun safety course, before they get the gun. I hope you'll help me pass that in this Congress.

Listen to this—listen to this. The accidental gun rate—the accidental gun death rate of children under 15 in the United States is nine times higher than in the other 25 industrialized countries combined. Now, technologies now exist that could lead to guns that can only be fired by the adults who own them. I ask Congress to fund research into smart gun technology, to save these children's lives. (Applause.) I ask responsible leaders in the gun industry to work with us on smart guns, and other steps to keep guns out of the wrong hands, to keep our children safe.

You know, every parent I know worries about the impact of violence in the media on their children. I want to begin by thanking the entertainment industry for accepting my challenge to put voluntary ratings on TV programs and video and Internet games. But, frankly, the ratings are too numerous, diverse and confusing to be really useful to parents. So tonight, I ask the industry to accept the First Lady's challenge to develop a single voluntary rating system for all children's entertainment that is easier for parents to understand and enforce. The steps I outline will take us well on our way to making America the safest big country in the world.

Now, to keep our historic economic expansion going—the subject of a lot of discussion in this community and others—I believe we need a 21st century revolution to open new markets, start new businesses, hire new workers right here in America—in our inner cities, poor rural areas, and Native American reservations.

Our nation's prosperity hasn't yet reached these places. Over the last six months, I've traveled to a lot of them, joined by many of you, and many far-sighted business people, to shine a spotlight on the enormous potential in communities from Appalachia to the Mississippi Delta, from Watts to the Pine Ridge Reservation. Everywhere I go, I meet talented people eager for opportunity, and able to work. Tonight I ask you, let's put them to work.For business, it's the smart thing to do. For America, it's the right thing to do. And let me ask you something—if we don't do this now, when in the wide world will we ever get around to it?

So I ask Congress to give businesses the same incentives to invest in America's new markets they now have to invest in markets overseas. Tonight, I propose a large New Markets tax credit and other incentives to spur $22 billion in private-sector capital to create new businesses and new investments in our inner cities and rural areas.

Because empowerment zones have been creating these opportunities for five years now, I also ask you to increase incentives to invest in them and to create more of them.

And let me say to all of you again what I have tried to say at every turn—this is not a Democratic or a Republican issue. Giving people a chance to live their dreams is an American issue.

Mr. Speaker, it was a powerful moment last November when you joined Reverend Jesse Jackson and me in your home state of Illinois, and committed to working toward our common goal, by combining the best ideas from both sides of the aisle. I want to thank you again, and to tell you, Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with you. This is a worthy, joint endeavor. Thank you.

I also ask you to make special efforts to address the areas of our nation with the highest rates of poverty—our Native American reservations and the Mississippi Delta. My budget includes $110-million initiative to promote economic development in the Delta, and a billion dollars to increase economic opportunity, health care, education and law enforcement for our Native American communities. In this new century—we should begin this new century by honoring our historic responsibility to empower the first Americans. And I want to thank tonight the leaders and the members from both parties who've expressed to me an interest in working with us on these efforts. They are profoundly important.

There's another part of our American community in trouble tonight—our family farmers. When I signed the Farm Bill in 1996, I said there was great danger it would work well in good times, but not in bad. Well, droughts, floods, and historically low prices have made these times very bad for the farmers. We must work together to strengthen the farm safety net, invest in land conservation, and create some new markets for them by expanding our programs for bio-based fuels and products. Please, they need help—let's do it together.

Opportunity for all requires something else today—having access to a computer and knowing how to use it. That means we must close the digital divide between those who've got the tools and those who don't.

Connecting classrooms and libraries to the Internet is crucial, but it's just a start. My budget ensures that all new teachers are trained to teach 21st century skills, and it creates technology centers in 1,000 communities to serve adults. This spring, I'll invite high-tech leaders to join me on another New Markets tour, to close the digital divide and open opportunity for our people.

I want to thank the high-tech companies that already are doing so much in this area. I hope the new tax incentives I have proposed will get all the rest of them to join us. This is a national crusade. We have got to do this, and do it quickly.

Now, again I say to you, these are steps, but step by step, we can go a long way toward our goal of bringing opportunity to every community.

To realize the full possibilities of this economy, we must reach beyond our own borders, to shape the revolution that is tearing down barriers and building new networks among nations and individuals, and economies and cultures: globalization. It's the central reality of our time.

Of course, change this profound is both liberating and threatening to people. But there's no turning back. And our open, creative society stands to benefit more than any other—if we understand, and act on, the realities of interdependence. We have to be at the center of every vital global network, as a good neighbor and a good partner. We have to recognize that we cannot build our future without helping others to build theirs.

The first thing we have got to do is to forge a new consensus on trade. Now, those of us who believe passionately in the power of open trade, we have to ensure that it lifts both our living standards and our values, never tolerating abusive child labor or a race to the bottom in the environment and worker protection. But others must recognize that open markets and rule-based trade are the best engines we know of for raising living standards, reducing global poverty and environmental destruction, and assuring the free flow of ideas.

I believe as strongly tonight as I did the first day I got here, the only direction forward for America on trade—the only direction for America on trade is to keep going forward. I ask you to help me forge that consensus.

We have to make developing economies our partners in prosperity. That's why I would like to ask you again to finalize our groundbreaking African and Caribbean Basin trade initiatives.

But globalization is about more than economics. Our purpose must be to bring together the world around freedom and democracy and peace, and to oppose those who would tear it apart. Here are the fundamental challenges I believe America must meet to shape the 21st century world.

First, we must continue to encourage our former adversaries, Russia and China, to emerge as stable, prosperous, democratic nations. Both are being held back today from reaching their full potential: Russia by the legacy of communism, an economy in turmoil, a cruel and self-defeating war in Chechnya; China by the illusion that it can buy stability at the expense of freedom.

But think how much has changed in the past decade: 5,000 former Soviet nuclear weapons taken out of commission; Russian soldiers actually serving with ours in the Balkans; Russian people electing their leaders for the first time in a thousand years; and in China, an economy more open to the world than ever before.

Of course, no one, not a single person in this chamber tonight, can know for sure what direction these great nations will take. But we do know for sure that we can choose what we do. And we should do everything in our power to increase the chance that they will choose wisely, to be constructive members of our global community.

That's why we should support those Russians who are struggling for a democratic, prosperous future; continue to reduce both our nuclear arsenals; and help Russia to safeguard weapons and materials that remain.

And that's why I believe Congress should support the agreement we negotiated to bring China into the WTO, by passing Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China as soon as possible this year.

I think you ought to do it for two reasons. First of all, our markets are already open to China; this agreement will open China's markets to us. And, second, it will plainly advance the cause of peace in Asia and promote the cause of change in China. No, we don't know where it's going. All we can do is decide what we're going to do. But when all is said and done, we need to know we did everything we possibly could to maximize the chance that China will choose the right future.

A second challenge we've got is to protect our own security from conflicts that pose the risk of wider war and threaten our common humanity. We can't prevent every conflict or stop every outrage. But where our interests are at stake and we can make a difference, we should be, and we must be, peacemakers.

We should be proud of our role in bringing the Middle East closer to a lasting peace; building peace in Northern Ireland; working for peace in East Timor and Africa; promoting reconciliation between Greece and Turkey and in Cyprus; working to defuse these crises between India and Pakistan; in defending human rights and religious freedom. And we should be proud of the men and women of our Armed Forces and those of our allies who stopped the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, enabling a million people to return to their homes.

When Slobodan Milosevic unleashed his terror on Kosovo, Captain John Cherrey was one of the brave airmen who turned the tide. And when another American plane was shot down over Serbia, he flew into the teeth of enemy air defenses to bring his fellow pilot home. Thanks to our Armed Forces' skill and bravery, we prevailed in Kosovo without losing a single American in combat. I want to introduce Captain Cherrey to you. We honor Captain Cherrey, and we promise you, Captain, we'll finish the job you began. Stand up so we can see you.

A third challenge we have is to keep this inexorable march of technology from giving terrorists and potentially hostile nations the means to undermine our defenses. Keep in mind, the same technological advances that have shrunk cell phones to fit in the palms of our hands can also make weapons of terror easier to conceal and easier to use.

We must meet this threat by making effective agreements to restrain nuclear and missile programs in North Korea; curbing the flow of lethal technology to Iran; preventing Iraq from threatening its neighbors; increasing our preparedness against chemical and biological attack; protecting our vital computer systems from hackers and criminals; and developing a system to defend against new missile threats—while working to preserve our ABM missile treaty with Russia. We must do all these things.

I predict to you, when most of us are long gone, but some time in the next 10 to 20 years, the major security threat this country will face will come from the enemies of the nation state: the narco-traffickers and the terrorists and the organized criminals, who will be organized together, working together, with increasing access to ever-more sophisticated chemical and biological weapons.

And I want to thank the Pentagon and others for doing what they're doing right now to try to help protect us and plan for that, so that our defenses will be strong. I ask for your support to ensure they can succeed.

I also want to ask you for a constructive bipartisan dialogue this year to work to build a consensus which I hope will eventually lead to the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

I hope we can also have a constructive effort to meet the challenge that is presented to our planet by the huge gulf between rich and poor. We cannot accept a world in which part of humanity lives on the cutting edge of a new economy, and the rest live on the bare edge of survival. I think we have to do our part to change that—with expanded trade, expanded aid, and the expansion of freedom.

This is interesting—from Nigeria to Indonesia, more people got the right to choose their leaders in 1999 than in 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell. We've got to stand by these democracies—including, and especially tonight, Colombia, which is fighting narco-traffickers, for its own people's lives and our children's lives. I have proposed a strong two-year package to help Colombia win this fight. I want to thank the leaders in both parties in both Houses for listening to me and the President of Colombia about it. We have got to pass this. I want to ask your help. A lot is riding on it. And it's so important for the long-term stability of our country, and for what happens in Latin America.

I also want you to know I'm going to send you new legislation to go after what these drug barons value the most—their money. And I hope you'll pass that as well.

In a world where over a billion people live on less than a dollar a day, we also have got to do our part in the global endeavor to reduce the debts of the poorest countries, so they can invest in education, health care and economic growth. That's what the Pope and other religious leaders have urged us to do. And last year, Congress made a down payment on America's share. I ask you to continue that. I thank you for what you did, and ask you to stay the course.

I also want to say that America must help more nations to break the bonds of disease. Last year in Africa, 10 times as many people died from AIDS as were killed in wars—10 times. The budget I give you invests $150 million more in the fight against this and other infectious killers. And today, I propose a tax credit to speed the development of vaccines for diseases like malaria, TB and AIDS. I ask the private sector and our partners around the world to join us in embracing this cause. We can save millions of lives together, and we ought to do it.

I also want to mention our final challenge, which, as always, is the most important. I ask you to pass a national security budget that keeps our military the best-trained and best-equipped in the world, with heightened readiness and 21st century weapons; which raises salaries for our servicemen and women; which protects our veterans; which fully funds the diplomacy that keeps our soldiers out of war; which makes good on our commitment to pay our U.N. dues and arrears. I ask you to pass this budget.

I also want to say something, if I might, very personal tonight. The American people watching us at home, with the help of all the commentators, can tell from who stands and who sits, and who claps and who doesn't, that there's still modest differences of opinion in this room. But I want to thank you for something, every one of you. I want to thank you for the extraordinary support you have given—Republicans and Democrats alike—to our men and women in uniform. I thank you for that.

I also want to thank, especially, two people. First, I want to thank our Secretary of Defense, Bill Cohen, for symbolizing our bipartisan commitment to national security. Thank you, sir. Even more, I want to thank his wife, Janet, who, more than any other American citizen, has tirelessly traveled this world to show the support we all feel for our troops. Thank you, Janet Cohen. I appreciate that. Thank you.

These are the challenges we have to meet so that we can lead the world toward peace and freedom in an era of globalization.

I want to tell you that I am very grateful for many things as President. But one of the things I'm grateful for is the opportunity that the Vice President and I have had to finally put to rest the bogus idea that you cannot grow the economy and protect the environment at the same time.

As our economy has grown, we've rid more than 500 neighborhoods of toxic waste, ensured cleaner air and water for millions of people. In the past three months alone, we've helped preserve 40 million acres of roadless lands in the national forests, created three new national monuments.

But as our communities grow, our commitment to conservation must continue to grow. Tonight, I propose creating a permanent conservation fund, to restore wildlife, protect coastlines, save natural treasures, from the California redwoods to the Florida Everglades.

This Lands Legacy endowment would represent by far the most enduring investment in land preservation ever proposed in this House. I hope we can get together with all the people with different ideas and do this. This is a gift we should give to our children and our grandchildren for all time, across party lines. We can make an agreement to do this.

Last year, the Vice President launched a new effort to make communities more liberal—livable—liberal, I know. Wait a minute, I've got a punchline now. That's this year's agenda; last year was livable, right? That's what Senator Lott is going to say in the commentary afterwards. To make our communities more livable. This is big business. This is a big issue. What does that mean? You ask anybody that lives in an unlivable community, and they'll tell you. They want their kids to grow up next to parks, not parking lots; the parents don't have to spend all their time stalled in traffic when they could be home with their children.

Tonight, I ask you to support new funding for the following things, to make American communities for liberal—livable. I've done pretty well with this speech, but I can't say that.

One, I want you to help us to do three things. We need more funding for advanced transit systems. We need more funding for saving open spaces in places of heavy development. And we need more funding—this ought to have bipartisan appeal—we need more funding for helping major cities around the Great Lakes protect their waterways and enhance their quality of life. We need these things and I want you to help us.

The greatest environmental challenge of the new century is global warming. The scientists tell us the 1990s were the hottest decade of the entire millennium. If we fail to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, deadly heat waves and droughts will become more frequent, coastal areas will flood, and economies will be disrupted. That is going to happen, unless we act.

Many people in the United States—some people in this chamber—and lots of folks around the world still believe you cannot cut greenhouse gas emissions without slowing economic growth. In the Industrial Age that may well have been true. But in this digital economy, it is not true anymore. New technologies make it possible to cut harmful emissions and provide even more growth.

For example, just last week, automakers unveiled cars that get 70 to 80 miles a gallon—the fruits of a unique research partnership between government and industry. And before you know it, efficient production of bio-fuels will give us the equivalent of hundreds of miles from a gallon of gasoline.

To speed innovation in these kind of technologies, I think we should give a major tax incentive to business for the production of clean energy, and to families for buying energy-saving homes and appliances and the next generation of super-efficient cars when they hit the showroom floor. I also ask the auto industry to use the available technologies to make all new cars more fuel-efficient right away.

And I ask this Congress to do something else. Please help us make more of our clean energy technology available to the developing world. That will create cleaner growth abroad and a lot more new jobs here in the United States of America.

In the new century, innovations in science and technology will be the key not only to the health of the environment, but to miraculous improvements in the quality of our lives and advances in the economy. Later this year, researchers will complete the first draft of the entire human genome, the very blueprint of life. It is important for all our fellow Americans to recognize that federal tax dollars have funded much of this research, and that this and other wise investments in science are leading to a revolution in our ability to detect, treat, and prevent disease.

For example, researchers have identified genes that cause Parkinson's, diabetes, and certain kinds of cancer—they are designed precision therapies that will block the harmful effect of these genes for good. Researchers already are using this new technique to target and destroy cells that cause breast cancer. Soon, we may be able to use it to prevent the onset of Alzheimer's. Scientists are also working on an artificial retina to help many blind people to see—and listen to this—microchips that would actually directly stimulate damaged spinal cords in a way that could allow people now paralyzed to stand up and walk.

These kinds of innovations are also propelling our remarkable prosperity. Information technology only includes 8 percent of our employment, but now it counts for a third of our economic growth—along with jobs that pay, by the way, about 80 percent above the private sector average. Again, we ought to keep in mind, government-funded research brought supercomputers, the Internet, and communications satellites into being. Soon researchers will bring us devices that can translate foreign languages as fast as you can talk; materials 10 times stronger than steel at a fraction of the weight; and—this is unbelievable to me—molecular computers the size of a tear drop with the power of today's fastest supercomputers.

To accelerate the march of discovery across all these disciplines in science and technology, I ask you to support my recommendation of an unprecedented $3 billion in the 21st Century Research Fund, the largest increase in civilian research in a generation. We owe it to our future.

Now, these new breakthroughs have to be used in ways that reflect our values. First and foremost, we have to safeguard our citizens' privacy. Last year, we proposed to protect every citizen's medical record. This year, we will finalize those rules. We've also taken the first steps to protect the privacy of bank and credit card records and other financial statements. Soon I will send legislation to you to finish that job. We must also act to prevent any genetic discrimination whatever by employers or insurers. I hope you will support that.

These steps will allow us to lead toward the far frontiers of science and technology. They will enhance our health, the environment, the economy in ways we can't even imagine today. But we all know that at a time when science, technology and the forces of globalization are bringing so many changes into all our lives, it's more important than ever that we strengthen the bonds that root us in our local communities and in our national community.

No tie binds different people together like citizen service. There's a new spirit of service in America—a movement we've tried to support with AmeriCorps, expanded Peace Corps, unprecedented new partnerships with businesses, foundations, community groups. Partnerships, for example, like the one that enlisted 12,000 companies which have now moved 650,000 of our fellow citizens from welfare to work. Partnerships to battle drug abuse, AIDS, teach young people to read, save America's treasures, strengthen the arts, fight teen pregnancy, prevent violence among young people, promote racial healing. The American people are working together.

But we should do more to help Americans help each other. First, we should help faith-based organizations to do more to fight poverty and drug abuse, and help people get back on the right track, with initiatives like Second Chance Homes that do so much to help unwed teen mothers. Second, we should support Americans who tithe and contribute to charities, but don't earn enough to claim a tax deduction for it. Tonight, I propose new tax incentives that would allow low-and middle-income citizens who don't itemize to get that deduction. It's nothing but fair, and it will get more people to give.

We should do more to help new immigrants to fully participate in our community. That's why I recommend spending more to teach them civics and English. And since everybody in our community counts, we've got to make sure everyone is counted in this year's census.

Within 10 years—just 10 years—there will be no majority race in our largest state of California. In a little more than 50 years, there will be no majority race in America. In a more interconnected world, this diversity can be our greatest strength. Just look around this chamber. Look around. We have members in this Congress from virtually every racial, ethnic, and religious background. And I think you would agree that America is stronger because of it.

You also have to agree that all those differences you just clapped for all too often spark hatred and division even here at home. Just in the last couple of years, we've seen a man dragged to death in Texas just because he was black. We saw a young man murdered in Wyoming just because he was gay. Last year, we saw the shootings of African Americans, Asian Americans, and Jewish children just because of who they were. This is not the American way, and we must draw the line.

I ask you to draw that line by passing without delay the Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. And I ask you to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.

Finally tonight, I propose the largest-ever investment in our civil rights laws for enforcement, because no American should be subjected to discrimination in finding a home, getting a job, going to school, or securing a loan. Protections in law should be protections in fact.

Last February, because I thought this was so important, I created the White House Office of One America to promote racial reconciliation. That's what one of my personal heroes, Hank Aaron, has done all his life. From his days as our all-time home run king to his recent acts of healing, he has always brought people together. We should follow his example, and we're honored to have him with us tonight. Stand up, Hank Aaron.

I just want to say one more thing about this, and I want every one of you to think about this the next time you get mad at one of your colleagues on the other side of the aisle. This fall, at the White House, Hillary had one of her millennium dinners, and we had this very distinguished scientist there, who is an expert in this whole work in the human genome. And he said that we are all, regardless of race, genetically 99.9 percent the same.

Now, you may find that uncomfortable when you look around here. But it is worth remembering. We can laugh about this, but you think about it. Modern science has confirmed what ancient faiths has always taught: the most important fact of life is our common humanity. Therefore, we should do more than just tolerate our diversity—we should honor it and celebrate it.

My fellow Americans, every time I prepare for the State of the Union, I approach it with hope and expectation and excitement for our nation. But tonight is very special, because we stand on the mountain top of a new millennium. Behind us we can look back and see the great expanse of American achievement; and before us we can see even greater, grander frontiers of possibility. We should, all of us, be filled with gratitude and humility for our present progress and prosperity. We should be filled with awe and joy at what lies over the horizon. And we should be filled with absolute determination to make the most of it.

You know, when the framers finished crafting our Constitution in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin stood in Independence Hall and he reflected on the carving of the sun that was on the back of a chair he saw. The sun was low on the horizon. So he said this—he said, "I've often wondered whether that sun was rising or setting. Today," Franklin said, "I have the happiness to know it's a rising sun." Today, because each succeeding generation of Americans has kept the fire of freedom burning brightly, lighting those frontiers of possibility, we all still bask in the glow and the warmth of Mr. Franklin's rising sun.

After 224 years, the American revolution continues. We remain a new nation. And as long as our dreams outweigh our memories, America will be forever young. That is our destiny. And this is our moment.

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

克林顿2000年国情咨文演说 中文版

2000年1月27日，星期四

议长先生、副总统先生、国会议员、各位贵宾、美国同胞们：

我们幸运地生活在这样一个历史时刻。我们国家从未享有如此之大的繁荣和社会进步，同时面临如此之少的国内危机和国外威胁。我们从未有过这么幸运的机会，因此也从未有过这样重大的责任去建设我们的开国元勋们所梦想的更加完美的合众国。

我们正以骄人的成绩迎接新世纪，我们创造了2000万个以上的新就业机会，三十多年来最快的经济增长速度，30年来最低的失业率，20年来最低的贫困率，有史以来非洲裔美国人和西班牙裔美国人最低的失业率，42年来第一次连续性预算盈余。到下个月，美国将创下有史以来经济增长持续时间最久的记录。

我们建设了一个新经济。

与我们的经济革命一致的是美国精神也在恢复。犯罪率下降了20%，降至25年来的最低水平;青少年的生育率连续七年呈下降趋势;收养率上升了30%;接受福利救济的人数减少了一半，是30年来的最低水平。

美国同胞们，纵观历史我们的合众国从未如此强大。

像以往一样，真正的功劳属于美国人民。我还要感谢与我们共同努力，把进步置于党派斗争之上的在座的国会议员们。八年前，大多数美国人还不这么确信，在2000年会有很多值得庆祝的成就。当时，我们的国家处于经济困境、社会衰退和政治停滞之中。有一本畅销书的书名是《美国：出了什么问题?》

凭借我们国家最优良的传统，美国人决心拨乱反正。我们重新采取中间路线，用一种植根于基本而持久的价值观的新思想取代过时的意识形态。这种价值观就是人人拥有机会，人人承担责任，所有美国人组成一个大家庭。我们彻底改造了政府，使它成为新思想的催化剂，重视机会与责任，使人民拥有解决自己的问题所需要的新思想的工具。

我们凭借40年来最少的联邦工作人员队伍，把空前的赤字变成了创纪录的盈余，并把教育方面的投资增加了一倍。借助10万名社区警察和禁止50万罪犯拥有枪支的布雷迪法，我们减少了犯罪。

我们知道我们结束了福利救济——在保证儿童的医疗和营养的同时要求父母参加工作，并增加儿童照管、交通和住房方面的经费以帮助他们的父母参加工作。通过家人生病休假法，父母们在我们的帮助下既能家庭美满又能事业成功。迄今为止，已有2000万美国人利用这种休假来照料新生儿或者生病的亲人。我们吸收15万美国年轻人加入美国国民服务队为居民服务，同时帮助他们挣钱上大学。

1992年，我们只有一幅路线图;今天，我们已经取得了成果。

然而更重要的是，美国又有了拥有美好梦想的信心。但我们千万不能让这种信心变成自满情绪，因为我们传给子孙后代的梦想和行为将成为评价我们的标准。在这一点上，评价我们的标准将很高，的确很高，因为我们取得成功的机会是如此之大。

美国同胞们，我们已经跨越我们建造的通向21世纪的桥梁。现在，我们必须塑造21世纪的美国革命——关于机会、责任和大家庭的革命。我们必须成为一个崭新的国家，就像开国之初一样。

20世纪初，西奥多·罗斯福曾说：“最重要的特点是远见卓识……美国应该成为日益强大的国家，拥有目光长远的未来。”那么今晚，让我们放眼未来，为我们国家确定宏伟的目标。

对于21世纪的美国，让我们做出如下承诺：每一个孩子在入学时有望学到知识，在毕业时有望取得成就。每一个家庭都能家庭事业双丰收，没有一个儿童会在贫困中长大成人。我们将迎接美国老龄化的挑战。我们将最终保证向所有美国人提供优质的、负担得起的医疗。

我们将使美国成为地球上最安全的大国。我们将自1835年以来第一次清偿国债。我们将给美国每个社区带来繁荣。我们将扭转气候变化的趋势，留给后人一个更加安全、更加洁净的星球。美国将领导世界走向共同和平与繁荣，走向科学技术的前沿。我们将最终实现我们的开国元勋们很久以前的承诺——上帝庇护之下的一个不可分割、人人享有自由与正义的国家。

这些都是宏伟的目标，值得一个伟大的国家去争取。我们今年不可能实现所有这些目标，甚至这个十年也不可能，但我们终将实现这些目标。我们要记住，美国独立战争不是一枪就打赢的，北美洲不是一年就完成开拓的。历史以及过去七年给我们的启示是，宏伟的目标是一步一步实现的，在进展的基础上不断积累，不断进步。

当然，如果我们举步不前，我们就不可能取得进步。在我国最紧迫的一些优先考虑的问题上，本届国会犹豫的时间太久了。因此，我们今晚就从它们谈起。

我再次请求你们通过真正的病人权益法。我请求你们通过注重实际的枪支安全法。我请求你们通过竞选筹款改革法。我请求你们通过或否决被提名的司法官员或其他重要官员。另外，我再次请求你们，我恳求你们提高最低工资。

两年前，让我试着平衡一下跷跷板——两年前，当我们为实现第一个平衡预算而跨越党派界限时，我曾提出通过保持财政纪律来履行我们对下一代的责任。因为我们不愿背离这条道路，我们正做着在七年前看来难以想象的事情。我们实际上正逐渐支付国债。

现在，如果我们继续沿着这条道路走下去，我们将在13之年内完全清偿债务，使美国自1835年安德鲁·杰克逊担任总统以来第一次摆脱债务的困扰。

1993年，我们开始凭借赤字减少法整顿财政状况。你们大家都会记得，该法案是以一票之差在两院得到通过的。你们的前同事，我的第一任财政部长，领导了那次行动并促成了我们长期的经济繁荣。他今晚来到了我们中间，劳埃德·本特森你为美国做出了重要贡献，我们感谢你。

除了清偿债务，我们必须确保削减债务的好处用于履行我们向每位美国人做出的最重要的承诺——社会保险与老年保健医疗制度。今晚，我请你们与我合作，两党采取一致行动把第一笔款项用于社会保险改革，把通过削减债务节省下来的钱用于社会保险信托基金，使该基金在今后50年强劲健康地发展。

但这只是我们行程的开始，我们还必须采取正确的措施来实现我们的伟大目标。首先和最重要的是，我们需要在21世纪对教育进行改革，以每个儿童都能识文断字为指导思想。因为教育比以往任何时候都重要，是我国儿童通向未来的钥匙，我们必须确保所有儿童都拥有这把钥匙。这意味着优质的学前教育和课外教育，教室里受过最好培训的教师，以及所有儿童上大学的机会。

七年来，我们一直致力于利用机会和责任来改善我们的学校，投资更多但要求得到的回报也更多。学生的阅读和数学能力以及大学入学成绩都提高了，某些最引人注目的收益是在非常贫困街区的学校里获得的。

但所有成功的学校都遵循着同一经过实践证明的准则：提高标准、实施更明确的责任以及提供额外帮助，这样需要这种帮助的儿童就能得到帮助来达到那些标准。我向国会递交了一项以这个准则为基础的改革计划。这项计划使各州和各校区为取得进展而做出努力，并且由于这种进展而得到回报。每年我国政府在学校投资150多亿美元。是到了支持行得通的制度和停止支持行不通的制度的时候了。

现在，由于我们对学校提出了更多的要求，我们也应该增加对学校的投资。让我们把投资增加一倍，以便帮助各州和各校区改革最差劲的学校或者干脆关闭它们。让我们把对课外计划和夏季学校计划的投资增加一倍，以便提高成绩，使人们不再在街头闲逛，并使他们摆脱麻烦。如果我们做到这一点，我们就能够使美国每所失败学校的每位儿童——每一个人有机会达到高标准。

自从1993年以来，我们几乎把我们对“起步领先计划”的投资增加了一倍，并且提高了它的质量。今晚，我要求你们对该计划再投资10亿美元，这是该计划历史上资金增加幅度最大的一次。

我们知道那些规模较小、教师优异的班级里的学生的成绩最好。连续两年来，国会一直支持我的计划，雇用10万名新的合格教师来缩小每个年级的班级规模。为此我感谢你们，请你们连续第三年支持我的这项计划。为了确保所有教师了解他们教授的课程，今晚我建议制订一项新的教学质量计划，以便让更多有天分的教师进入教室授业解惑，奖励那些留在教室安心工作的优异教师，并且使所有教师得到他们所需要的培训。

我们知道特许学校提供真正的公立学校的选择。在我就任总统之初，全美国只有一所独立的公立特许学校。今天，感谢你们，全国现在共有1700所特许学校。我现在请你们帮助我们实现我们这样的一个目标，即到明年时特许学校达到3000所。

我们知道我们必须把我们所有的教室与因特网连接起来，我们快要达到这个目标了。1994年，只有3%的教室连上了因特网。如今，在副总统的“提高上网率计划”的帮助下，一半以上的教室连上了因特网。在我们所有的学校中，有90%至少有一台计算机连接了因特网。

但当我们的学校中有三分之一处于严重的年久失修时，我们就无法完成这项任务。许多学校的墙壁和线路如此老化，以至于无法连接因特网。因此今晚，我建议每年帮助5000所学校立即进行修葺;再帮助6000所学校实现现代化，使学生们走出活动式教室，进入高科技教室中。

我要求你们所有的人帮助我把两党共同制订的“提高计划”扩大一倍。该计划旨在为贫困的年轻人提供导师。如果我们把该计划扩大一倍，我们就能向140万贫困的年轻人提供导师。让我们还向来自贫困家庭的儿童提供同样的机会，像较富裕的学生那样为提高分数而上大学考试预备课程。

为了让所有人实现美国梦，我们必须让所有人都上得起大学。七年来，在两党支持的基础上，我们为实现这个目标而采取了行动：提高佩尔助学金，增加学生贷款，制订教育个人退休账户计划以及设立“希望”奖学金。这些举措已经使500万年轻人受益。

如今，高中毕业生中有67%正准备上大学。自从1993年以来这个数字增加了10%。不过，数以百万计的家庭仍然负担不起大学费用，他们需要帮助。因此，我建议采取具有里程碑意义的举措，为大学减税300亿美元——中产阶级在大学费用方面的税额扣减高达1万美元。本届国会以前采取的行动已经使所有人上得起两年制大学，是让所有人都上得起四年制大学的时候了。如果我们采取所有这些措施，我们将朝向确保每位儿童在上学之初有望学到知识，在毕业之后有望取得成就方面迈出很大的一步。

我们需要一场21世纪的革命，使每位父母拥有能在工作方面以及最重要的工作——抚育子女方面取得成就的工具，从而鼓励工作和加强家庭观念。这意味着确保每个家庭拥有保健，并且得到支持来照顾上了年纪的父母，拥有能把子女抚育成人的工具，并且确保没有儿童在贫困中长大。

从我就任总统之初，我们就致力于使家庭能更好地得到医疗保健。1997年，我们通过了儿童健康保险计划，这样那些不能通过其雇主拥有保险的工人们至少能够为他们的子女得到保险。迄今为止，我们登记了200万儿童，我们正向500万儿童这一目标顺利迈进。

但仍有4000多万美国同胞没有医疗保险，人数超过1993年。今晚我倡议我们听从副总统戈尔的建议，使低收入父母有资格获得能够把他们的子女包括在内的保险。与我们的儿童计划一道——想想这一点——与我们的儿童计划一道，这个行动将使我们能够把美国所有没有上保险的人中近四分之一包括进来。

再次，我希望你们让年龄在55岁至65岁之间的人——数量增长最快的未上保险群体，加入老年保健医疗制度。今年我建议使他们享有课税扣除，以便使他们有钱加入这个制度。我希望你们也支持这项议案。

当生育高峰期出生的人退休时，老年保健医疗制度要照顾的公民比我们现在的公民多一倍。不过，这个制度远远没有准备好这么做。我们这一代人不该让我们的子女来挑起我们的负担。我们必须现在就采取行动来加强老年保健医疗制度并使其现代化。

我的预算包括一项改革老年保健医疗制度，使其更加有效和更具竞争力的综合计划。这项计划把近4000亿美元的预算结余用于使老年保健医疗制度安然度过2025年。最后，这项计划还提供资金，以便使每位年长者为凭处方供应的药品自愿选择负担得起的保险。

救生药物是现代药品中必不可少的一部分。今天没有一个人会在制订老年保健医疗制度时把凭处方供应的药品排除在外。不过，现在我国五位年长者之中，就有三位以上缺少能够延长和丰富其生命的独立药物保险。数以百万计年纪较大的美国人需要凭处方供应的药品。对他们来说，这是价格最高的费用。凭良心说，我们不能让又一年在没有让所有年长者都获得负担得起的凭处方供应的药品的情况下过去。

赡养家中上了年纪或者疾病缠身的亲人的美国人的数量达到创纪录的水平。这是一个充满爱心，但却是十分困难并且常常是昂贵的选择。去年，我提出旨在让长期保健享受1000美元的课税扣除的议案。坦白地说，这并不够。今年，让我们把课税扣除增加两倍，达到3000美元。今年，让我们通过这项议案。

我们还必须进行必要的投资来使更多的人得到精神医疗保健。我想花一点时间来感谢那位，去年领导第一届白宫精神保健会议召开，并且七年来领导大家打破精神疾病患者接受良好治疗障碍的人。谢谢你，蒂珀·戈尔。

这些议案加在一起将标志着自从老年保健医疗制度35年前创立以来对医疗保健最大的投资——35年来最大的投资。这将是朝向确保所有美国人——年轻人和年长者得到优质医疗保健方向迈出的一大步。我请你们接受它们并且通过它们。

我们还必须进行投资，以鼓励工作和支持家庭。在这个方面做得最好的莫过于赚得收益税额减免(EITC)计划。“E”代表收入、工作、责任以及为此得到的回报。在我第一次向你们发表演说时，我要求国会大大扩大税额减免幅度，你们照办了。结果，单是在1998年，赚得收益税额减免计划就帮助430多万美国人设法摆脱贫困，向中产阶级发展。这个数字比1993年增加了一倍。

今晚，我建议扩大赚得收益税额减免计划的另一个方面：减少结婚罚款，以确保此举能够鼓励结婚，就像鼓励工作一样，并且还扩大那些拥有两个以上子女家庭的税额减免。而目前的制度是惩罚那些拥有两个以上子女的人。我们的议案将让那些拥有三个或者更多子女的家庭享受的税款减免高达1100美元。这些是工作家庭，他们的子女不应该生活在贫困之中。

如果男女不能同工同酬，我们也不能做到鼓励工作和支持家庭。今天，女性失业率达到46年来的最低水平。不过，男人每挣1美元，妇女只能挣75美分。我们必须做得更好，提供人力、物力和财力来执行目前的平等薪金法;培训更多的妇女，让她们获得高收入、高科技的就业机会;以及通过薪金公平法案。

许多工作父母把他们的收入中的四分之一用于儿童保健。去年，我们帮助父母向大约200万儿童提供了儿童保健。我的儿童保健计划现在提交到你们面前，与福利改革已经得到的资金一道，将使儿童保健更好、更安全以及使另外40万儿童更加容易享受保健。我请你们通过这项计划。他们需要你们通过该计划。

为了帮助那些处于困境的中产阶级家庭，我们还应该扩大托儿费减免税收的范围。我坚信我们应该采取下一个重要步骤，让低收入家庭从这一减免税收中获得一定数额的退款。对于年收入低于3万美元的人来说，这意味着最高可获得2400美元的托儿费。我们大家都说，我们都是支持工作，支持家庭的，通过这项提案将加以证明。

数千万美国人靠工资生活。尽管他们努力工作，但他们仍然没有获得积蓄的机会。利用个人退休账户计划和401-K计划的人太少。我们应该做出更大努力来帮助所有工作家庭来积蓄和积累财富。这就是提出个人发展账户计划背后的想法。我要求你们将这一想法提升到一个新的高度，建立新的退休储蓄账户，以使美国每一个低收入和较低收入的家庭能够为养老、住房紧急医疗和大学教育而积蓄。我提议他们的积蓄应该与其贡献相一致，不论这种贡献有多大，他们每年的贡献都能与积蓄相持平。我提议对小型企业实行大幅度减免税收，以使它们能够为其工人提供有价值的养老金。这些人也跟我们大家一样都要退休。

近十分之一的美国儿童是在没有父亲的情况下长大成人的。这些儿童生活在贫穷状态下的可能性是生活在双亲家庭中儿童的五倍。显而易见的是，一个对孩子提出要求并予以抚养的、负责任的父亲对于让所有儿童摆脱贫困是至关重要的。自1992年以来，我们已经将孩子的抚养费提高了一倍。我提议你们应该采取新的严厉措施，以使更多的父亲负起责任来。

但是，我们应该认识到许多父亲希望为他们的孩子做一些事情，但他们这样做却需要帮助。明尼苏达州圣保罗的卡洛斯·罗萨斯希望为他的儿子做点事，他这样做因此得到了帮助。他现在获得了一份好工作并抚养着他年幼的儿子。我的预算将再帮助4万名父亲做出像罗萨斯那样的选择。我对他今晚前来这里表示感谢。请起立，卡洛斯，谢谢!

如果说有一个我们能够超越党派界限而取得一致的问题，那就是我们共同致力于让工作得到回报并加强我们的家庭关系。这有点类似于我们去年所做的事情。我们曾一起努力来帮助外出工作的残疾人继续实行医疗保险。我为此对你们表示感谢。多亏本届国会两党给予压倒一切的支持，我们才得以改善孤儿院的状况。我们帮助了这些年轻人，当他们到十八岁时就会离开孤儿院。我们已经大大增加了孤儿院抚养的孤儿进入收养家庭的人数。我因此向你们致谢。

当然，我对那个从一开始就率先努力，那个为儿童和家庭至今已不懈努力了30年的人永远表示谢意。她就是我的夫人，希拉里。谢谢她!

如果我们采取我刚刚提到的这些措施，我们就能够在很大程度上使父母在家庭和工作上都取得成功，我们就能够大大确保没有一个孩子是在贫困中长大的。我们能够在医疗保健、教育、补贴工作家庭等方面进行这些重要的投资。我们仍然能够通过减免税收来帮助人们支付大学学费、退休金、赡养年迈的父母、减少婚姻压力。我们能够在不放弃财经原则的情况下这样做。这种原则使得我们今晚能够在这里讨论这一问题。

诚然，我们必须在保持预算平衡的情况下进行这些投资并减免税收。预算平衡能够加强并延长社会保障计划和医疗照顾计划的寿命，还能偿还国债。

美国的犯罪率在过去七年中一直在下降，这是记录在案的持续时间最长的一次下降。这主要是因为国民在设立社区警察、敏感的枪支安全法律和有效预防犯罪等方面取得的共识。这种共识是我们帮助建立的。但是没有人，不仅此间而且在美国也没有人相信我们已经足够安全了。因此，我再次要求你们确定一个更高的目标，让我们把这个国家建设成为世界上最安全的大国。

去年秋天，国会支持我除招聘10万名我们已经资助的社区警察之外再招聘5万名警察，主要集中在高犯罪率的居民区保护治安。我要求你们继续对此给予支持。

哥伦拜恩惨剧发生后不久，国会就开始考虑制订清楚明了的枪支管理法律，要求对枪支买卖进行布雷迪提案中提出的背景检查，新式手枪上要安装儿童防护锁，禁止进口大容量的子弹夹。参议院凭借勇气，以及副总统决定胜负的一票，抵制住了反对管理枪支的游说，捍卫了美国人民的利益，通过了这一法律。但是，众议院却未能仿效。

现在我们大家都已经看到枪支落入坏人手中将会出现什么情况。丹尼尔·莫瑟尔在哥伦拜恩被枪击倒时才15岁。他是一个讨人喜欢的孩子，一个成绩一直非常优异的学生，而且酷爱滑雪。如同所有失去孩子的家长一样，他的父亲汤姆经受的痛苦难以言表。然而，他化悲痛为行动，找到了悼念他儿子的力量。本月早些时候，他请了假为通过更加严厉的枪支安全法律而不懈努力。我衷心祝愿他的勇气和智慧最终能够促使国会把这一简单明了的枪支管理法律作为它下一个考虑的议程。汤姆·莫瑟尔，请起立。我们对你今晚能够来到这里表示感谢。汤姆，谢谢你，汤姆。

我们必须加强我们的枪支管理法律并更好地实施已经登记在册的法律。自我执政以来，联邦枪支犯罪起诉案增加了16%。但是，我们必须采取更多的措施。我提议雇用更多的联邦和地方起诉强制案件的检察官和更多的AFT特工，以打击非法贩卖枪支者和屡教不改的贩子。我们必须给予他们所需要的执法手段，去搜寻在美国每一起涉枪案件中使用的每一支枪和每一发子弹的手段。我要求你们帮助我们完成这一任务。

这个国家的每一个州早就需要狩猎者和汽车司机拥有执照，我认为他们也必须要求购买手枪者持有执照。具体地说，我提议实施一项计划，以确保所有新购买枪支的人都必须首先从他们的州申请获得贴有照片的执照，然后才能得到枪支。该执照须表明，持有人已经通过了布雷迪提案中提出的背景检查和枪支安全课程。我希望你们帮助我在国会通过这项议案。

请注意以下这一点，请注意这一点：意外枪杀率——美国15岁以下儿童意外遭到枪杀案的比率比其他25个工业化国家案例总和高出15倍。当今存在的技术可以导致制造只有持有这些枪支的成人才能发射的枪。我要求国会拨款研制这种精巧枪支的技术，以便拯救我们孩子的生命。我还要求枪支行业负责任的领导人与我们一起努力生产出精巧枪支，并采取其他措施不让枪支落入坏人之手，保证我们孩子的安全。

我所认识的每一个父母都担心媒体上出现的暴力行动可能对他们孩子产生的影响。我想先感谢娱乐行业，是他们接受了我的挑战，对电视节目、录像片和因特网游戏实行自愿定级。但是坦率地说，这种定级数量太多，形式多样，容易混淆，不能对家长起到真正有益的作用。因此，今晚我要求娱乐行业接受第一夫人的挑战，制订出家长更容易理解和实施的、单一儿童娱乐节目的自愿定级制。我阐述的这些措施将使我们大踏步地走上使美国成为世界上最安全的大国的大道。

为了能使我们具有历史意义的经济发展持续下去——这是我们的社会和其他社会大量讨论的话题，我认为我们需要通过21世纪的一场革命来开放新的市场，创建新的企业，就在美国，在城市中心的贫民区、贫穷的农村地区和印地安人保护区雇用新的工人。

我们国家的繁荣还没有覆盖这些地区。在过去六个月中，我在你们中的许多人和众多具有远见的企业界人士的陪同下去了其中的许多地方，以便让人们的注意力集中在从阿巴拉契亚到密西西比三角洲，从瓦茨到派恩岭保护区等地区巨大的潜力上。我所到之处都能见着渴望获得机会、具有工作能力和才华的人们。今晚我要求你们，让我们给他们以工作机会。对企业界而言，这样做是有益的;对美国而言，这样做是正确的。让我向你们提一个问题：如果我们现在不这样做，在这茫茫世间我们何时能有时间来这样做?

所以，我要求国会给予企业界他们现在在海外市场上投资的那种优惠措施，以便他们在美国的新市场上投资。今晚，我提议对新市场投资实行大幅度税收减免和其他优惠措施，促使私营部门提供220亿美元的资本，以在城市中心的贫民区和农村地区创建新的企业，进行新的投资。

鉴于技能培训区五年来一直在创造这些机会，我还要求你们增加对它们投资的优惠措施，以便创造更多的机会。

让我再一次跟你们说我一直想说的话：这不是一个民主党或共和党的问题，给予人民以实现梦想的机会是一个全美国的问题。

议长先生，去年11月份的时光是美好的，你与杰西·杰克逊牧师和我一起来到了你的家乡伊利诺伊州。你承诺要把国会两党最好的想法揉合在一起，争取实现我们共同的目标。我谨再次对你表示感谢并告诉你，议长先生，我期待着与你合作。这是一项值得一做的共同努力。谢谢你!

我还要求你们做出异乎寻常的努力来解决我们国家最贫困地区——印地安人保护区和密西西比三角洲面临的一些问题。我的预算中包括一项总额为11亿美元的优惠政策，用以促进密西西比三角洲的经济发展，还包括用于我们印地安人保护区增加经济机会、改善医疗保健、教育和执法的10亿美元。在这个新世纪中，我们应该以履行我们赋予最早的美国人以技能这一历史职责来开始这个新的世纪。今晚我想感谢向我表示有兴趣在这方面与我们合作的两党领导人和成员。这是非常重要的。

今晚，我们美国社会的另一个部分，我们的家庭农场也面临着困难。当我1996年签署农场法案时，我曾经说过存在这样一种巨大的风险，即在风调雨顺时该法案能够很好地发挥作用，但在天灾人祸时就难以发挥作用了。干旱、水灾、创历史最低纪录的物价使农场主的日子过得非常艰难。我们必须共同努力来加强农场安全网，增加对土地保护的投资，并通过扩大我们保护生态的燃料和产品计划来为他们开拓一些新市场。他们需要帮助，让我们一起为此而努力吧。

今天，“人人都有机会”还需要做另一件事，即接触电脑并学会如何操作。这意味着我们必须缩小那些已经掌握这种手段的人与那些没有掌握的人在电脑知识方面之间的差距。

把教室和图书馆与因特网联接起来是至关重要的。可是，我们才刚刚起步。我的预算将确保所有新教师都将接受教授21世纪新技术的培训，并且将在1000个社区内建立专为成人服务的技术中心。今年春天，我将邀请高技术带头人与我一起再一次进行开拓新市场的视察，以缩小人们在电脑知识方面的差距并为我们的人民创造更多机会。

我想感谢那些已经在这一领域做出许多贡献的高技术公司。我希望我已经提议实施的新税收优惠措施将会使它们中间的其他公司也与我们携起手来。这是一项全国性的运动。我们必须这样做，而且需要尽快做。

我想再次对你们说，这些仅仅是措施，但通过一个一个措施，我们在实现给每一个社区提供机会的目标方面就能取得长足的进展。

为了充分发挥本国经济的全部潜能，我们必须跨出我们自己的国界，去触发一场拆除国与国和人与人之间、各国经济和文化之间的壁垒并建立新的联网系统的革命，这就是全球化。这是我们时代的核心现实。

当然，彻底改变这种局面对人民来说既有利又有弊。不过，已经没有回头路可走了。我们开放的、具有创造性的社会肯定会比其他任何社会都更加受益，如果我们能够认识到互相依赖这一现实并据此采取行动的话。我们作为一个友好的邻居和良好的合作伙伴，必须位居全球每一个重要网络的中心。我们必须认识到，我们不可能在不帮助他国创造未来的情况下创造我们自己的未来。

我们必须做的第一件事是在贸易方面达成共识。现在对我们中那些坚信开放贸易力量的人来说，我们必须确保它既提高我们的生活水平，也提高我们的价值标准，绝不允许滥用童工或者为了发展而全然不顾环境和劳动保护。但是其他人必须认识到，开放市场和以规则为基础的贸易是我们知道的提高生活水平、减少全球贫困和环境危害、保证思想自由流通的最好引擎。

今天晚上我像第一天来这里时一样坚信，在贸易方面美国唯一的前进方向——在贸易方面美国唯一的方向是继续前进。我请你们帮助我取得这样的共识。

我们必须把发展中的经济体作为我们繁荣的伙伴。正是因为这个原因，我想再次请你们最终确定我们开拓性的非洲和加勒比盆地贸易计划。

但是，全球化不仅是经济。我们的目标是使全世界团结在自由、民主与和平的周围，反对分裂世界的人。下面是我认为美国在塑造21世纪的世界时必须应对的根本性挑战。

第一，我们必须继续鼓励我们以前的对手俄罗斯和中国成为稳定、繁荣、民主的国家。它们今天在充分发挥潜力方面受阻：俄罗斯因为残存的共产主义、动荡的经济、车臣残酷的自卫战争而受阻;中国因为幻想能以牺牲自由为代价得到稳定而受阻。

但是，想一想过去十年发生了多大的变化：5000件前苏联核武器退出现役，俄罗斯军人实际上与我们一起在巴尔干服务，俄罗斯人民一千年以来第一次选举了他们的领导人;在中国，经济比以往任何时候都向世界开放。

当然没有任何人，今晚在这个大厅里没有一个人确切地知道这些大国将选择什么方向。但是我们肯定的知道，我们能选择我们做什么。我们应该尽一切努力增加他们做出明智选择，即成为我们全球大家庭建设性成员的可能。

正是因为这个原因，我们支持那些为民主、繁荣的未来而斗争的俄罗斯人，继续减少我们的核武器，帮助俄罗斯保障剩余的核武器和材料的安全。

也正是因为这个原因，我相信国会应该支持我们为使中国加入世界贸易组织而谈判的协议，今年尽快批准给中国的永久性正常贸易关系地位。

我认为出于两个原因，你们应该支持这个协议。首先，我们的市场已经向中国开放，这个协议将使中国的市场向我们开放。第二，它将明显推进亚洲的和平事业和促进中国的变革事业。不，我们不知道它走向何方。我们能做的只是决定我们做什么。但是归根结蒂，我们有必要知道，我们做了我们能做的一切来最大限度地增加中国选择正确未来的可能。

我们必须应对的第二个挑战是保护我们自己的安全，不受有可能引发更大范围的战争和威胁到全人类的冲突的危害。我们不能防止所有冲突或者制止所有暴行，但是在涉及到我们的利益而我们又能起到作用的地方，我们应该也必须作为维和者。

我们应该为我们在以下几个方面发挥的作用而感到自豪，即让中东更接近于实现持久和平，在北爱尔兰建立和平，为东帝汶和非洲的和平做出努力，促进希腊与土耳其以及塞浦路斯希族与土族之间的和解，努力消除印度与巴基斯坦之间的危机，维护人权和宗教自由。我们还应该为我们武装部队的男女官兵以及我们盟国的士兵制止了科索沃的种族清洗并使数百万人返回家园而感到自豪。

正值米洛舍维奇向科索沃发起恐怖行动之际，约翰·彻里上尉是力挽狂澜、勇敢的飞行员之一。当一架美国飞机在塞尔维亚上空被击落时，他冒着敌人密集的防空炮火把他的飞行员战友营救回国。由于我们武装部队的高超技术和勇敢精神，我们在科索沃取得了胜利，而且在战场上没有牺牲一兵一卒。我希望把彻里上尉介绍给你们。我们对彻里上尉表示敬意。我向你保证，上尉先生，我们将完成你开创的工作。请站起来，让我们一睹你的风采。

我们面临的第三个挑战是在继续这种不可抗拒的技术潮流的同时，不让恐怖分子和潜在的敌国获得破坏我们防御的手段。请牢记，将移动电话缩小到手掌般大小的同一种技术也可以使恐怖武器更容易藏匿，更易于使用。

我们必须采取以下手段来应对这种威胁，达成有效协议来限制朝鲜的核武器和导弹计划，制止致命的技术流向伊朗，防止伊拉克威胁邻国，提高我们防御生物和化学武器进攻的能力，保护我们重要的电脑系统免受黑客和罪犯的攻击，研制一种防御新导弹威胁的系统，同时又努力保留我们与俄罗斯达成的《反弹道导弹条约》。我们必须采取这些行动。

我可以向你们预言，当我们中的大多数人早已不在人世的时候，有的甚至在今后10至20年间将会去世，我们国家在安全方面面临的主要威胁将来自于国家的敌人：贩毒分子、恐怖主义分子和有组织的犯罪集团。他们将纠集在一起，同流合污，并将越来越多地获得更加先进的生物和化学武器。

我想对五角大楼等部门眼下正在做的事情表示感谢，他们努力保护我们，并为此制订计划以使我们的防御变得更加牢固。我请求你们为确保他们的成功而给予支持。

我还请求你们今年进行建设性的党派对话，争取取得一种我希望最终将导致批准《全面禁止核试验条约》的共识。

我希望我们还能做出建设性的努力，以应对由贫富之间的悬殊差距给我们的星球带来的挑战。我们不能容忍一个人类的一部分处在新经济的最前沿而其他的人则在为生存而挣扎的世界。我认为我们必须尽力来改变这种状况——通过扩大贸易、增加援助和扩大自由来加以实现。

值得注意的是，从尼日利亚到印度尼西亚，1999年有权选举自己领导人的民众多于柏林墙拆除时的1989年。我们必须支持这些民主国家，尤其是今天晚上，还包括哥伦比亚。它正在为保卫本国人民的生命和我们后代的生命与毒品走私者进行斗争。我已经提出一项帮助哥伦比亚赢得这场斗争的强有力的两年计划。我想感谢两院的两党领袖们在这项计划上听取我和哥伦比亚总统的意见。我想感谢各位的帮助。许多事情都取决于这项计划，它对我们国家的长期稳定，对拉丁美洲发生的事情非常重要。

我还希望你们知道，我将向你们提交一项新的法案，来查抄这些毒品大王们最珍视的东西——他们的金钱。我希望你们也会通过这项法案。

在一个有十多亿人每天的生活费不足一美元的世界上，我们还必须在全球努力减少最穷国家的债务中尽到我们的责任，使它们能够在教育、保健和经济发展方面进行投资。这是教皇和其他宗教领袖们敦促我们采取的行动。去年，国会为美国应尽的义务拨出了款项。我请求你们继续这样做，我感谢你们所做的一切，请你们再接再厉，贯彻始终。

我还想说，美国必须帮助更多的国家摆脱疾病的枷锁。去年，非洲死于艾滋病的人数是在战争中伤亡人数的10倍。我向你们提交的预算又拿出1.5亿美元用于与这种疾病和其他致命性传染病做斗争。今天，我建议以减税来加快疟疾、肺病和艾滋病等疾病疫苗的研制。我请求私营部门和世界各地的伙伴与我们一道支持这项事业。我们可共同挽救数百万人的生命。我们应该这样做。

我还想提一提我们的最后挑战，它总是最重要的挑战。我请求你们通过一项国家安全预算。这项预算可使我们的军队通过加强战备，拥有21世纪的武器，继续成为世界上训练最有素、装备最精良的部队。它提高了我们军人的薪金，为使我们的军人免于参加战争的外交活动提供充足的经费，它履行了我们支付我们的联合国会费和欠款的承诺。我请求你们通过这项预算。

如果有可能我还想谈一件事情，是今天晚上涉及个人的事情。美国民众在家里收看我们的电视转播，在各位评论员的帮助下，他们从哪些人站立，哪些人坐在座位上，哪些人鼓掌，哪些人没有鼓掌就能知道这个大厅里仍存在不同的意见。但是，我想为某些事情感谢你们，感谢在座的各位。我想感谢你们——共和党人和民主党人——对我们的军人给予的特别支持。

我特别想感谢两个人。首先，我想感谢我们的国防部长比尔·科恩。他象征着我们两党对国家安全的承诺。谢谢你，先生。再者，我还想感谢他的妻子珍妮特。她为表示对我们部队的支持，不知疲倦地周游世界，出访的次数比任何美国人都多。谢谢你珍妮特。谢谢你。

这是我们必须应对的挑战，这样我们才能在一个全球化的时代领导全世界走向和平与自由。

我想告诉你们，作为总统许多事情使我非常满意。但是，我感到满意的事情之一是副总统和我有机会终于打消了一些人的错误想法，即不能同时既发展经济又保护环境。

随着我们经济的发展，我们已经在500多个居民区消灭了有毒废物，确保数百万人获得比较洁净的空气和水源。仅在过去三个月里，我们就帮助保护了国家森林中4000万英亩的无路土地，创建了三个新的国家天然胜地。

随着我们社区的发展，我们对自然保护的承诺也必须继续加强。今天晚上，我建议设立一项永久性自然保护基金，使野生动植物恢复生机，保护海岸线，挽救自然财富，从加利福尼亚州的红杉到佛罗里达州的大沼泽都需要保护。

这项土地遗产基金将是在本院提出的对土地保护的最最持久的投资。我希望我们能与所有持不同意见的人坐在一起协商，实现这个目标。这应是我们不分党派献给我们子孙后代的一件礼物。我们能为实现这个目标达成协议。

去年，副总统发起了使社区变得更自由、更适于居住——据我所知是自由的新努力。请稍等，这是一句妙语。这是今年的日程。去年是适于居住，对吗?这是参议员洛特将在事后的评论中所说的话。要使我们的社区变得更加适于居住，这是一件大事，这是一个大问题。这意味着什么?你们可以问一问居住在不适于居住的社区的任何人，他们会告诉你们。他们希望他们的孩子在公园旁边长大，而不是在停车场旁边长大。父母们不必把本来应在家里与孩子们共渡的时光消磨在寸步难行的道路上。

今天晚上，我请求你们支持为以下项目拨出新的经费，使美国的社区变得自由适于居住。

首先，我希望你们帮助我们做三件事。我们的先进公共交通系统需要更多的经费。我们需要更多的经费挽救重开发地区的开阔空间。我们需要更多的经费——这应对两党都有吸引力，我们需要更多的经费帮助五大湖周围的城市保护他们的水道，提高他们的生活质量。我们需要这些经费，我希望你们给予帮助。

新世纪面临的最大环境挑战是全球气候变暖。科学家们告诉我们，20世纪90年代是整个千年中最热的十年。如果我们不能减少温室气体的排放，致命的热浪和干旱将变得更加频繁，沿海地区将洪水泛滥，经济将受到破坏。除非我们采取行动，否则这种情况将会发生。

美国有许多人——这个大厅里的一些人以及世界各地的许多人仍然认为，不放慢经济增长的速度，就不能减少温室气体的排放。在工业化时代，很有可能是这种情况。但是，在这个数字经济时代，情况再也不同了。新技术使在减少有害气体排放的同时加快经济增长成为可能。

例如，就在上星期，汽车制造商们推出了每加仑汽油行驶70～80英里的汽车，这是政府与工业的独特研究合作的成果。生物燃料的有效生产将在人们不知不觉的情况下，使相当于一加仑汽油的燃料行驶数百英里的路程。

为了加快这种新技术的创新，我认为我们应该给予重要的减税刺激，鼓励企业生产洁净能源，鼓励家庭购买节能住宅和家用电器以及即将问世的下一代超级效率汽车。我还请求汽车工业利用现有的技术立即提高所有新汽车的燃料利用率。

我请求本届国会做一件其他事情。请帮助我们更多地向发展中国家提供我们的洁净能源技术。这将使国外在改善环境的情况下获得发展，在美利坚合众国这里创造更多的就业机会。

在新世纪，科学技术的创新不仅是环境健康的关键，也将是奇迹般地提高我们的生活质量和经济取得进步的关键。今年晚些时候，研究人员将完成整个人体基因图的第一份草稿，这是生命的蓝图。我们所有美国同胞都应认识到，联邦税收为这项研究的大部分工作提供了经费，这种投资以及对科学的其他明智投资将使我们发现、治疗和预防疾病的能力发生一场革命。

例如，研究人员已经发现了引起帕金森氏病、糖尿病和某些癌症的基因。现在已经研究出永久阻止这些基因的有害影响的精确疗法。研究人员已经在利用这种新方法瞄准和消灭引起乳腺癌的细胞。我们或许能在不久利用这种方法防止阿耳茨海默氏病的发生。科学家们还研究出一种人工视网膜，可帮助许多盲人重见光明——请注意——还有微芯片，实际上它将直接刺激受伤的脊髓，让现在的瘫痪者站起来行走。

这些发明创造还在推动着我们非凡的繁荣。信息技术的从业人员现在仅占我们就业人数的8%，但是，它创造的财富占我们经济增长的三分之一。顺便说一下，它为就业者提供的报酬比私营部门的平均报酬高出大约80%。我们还应牢记的是，政府资助的研究项目发明了超级计算机、互联网和通讯卫星。研究人员将在不久为我们研究出能对外语进行同声传译的机器。重量很轻，坚固性却比钢高十倍的材料即将问世。我简直不敢相信的是，只有一滴眼泪大小的分子计算机却有当今速度最快的超级计算机的功能。

为了加快科技领域所有这些学科的发展步伐，我请求你们支持我的建议，为21世纪的科研基金拨出前所未有的30亿美元经费，这是一代人的时间里民用科研经费幅度最大的增长。我们应为我们的未来投资。

现在，这些新的突破必须以反映我们价值观的方式加以利用。首先而且最重要的是，我们必须保障我们公民的隐私权。去年，我建议保护每位公民的病例。今年，我们将定下这些规则。我们还初步采取一些措施保护银行和信用卡记录以及其他财务表格的秘密。我将在不久向你们提交法案完成这项工作。我们还必须采取行动防止雇主或保险人从遗传上给予任何歧视。我希望你们会给予支持。

这些措施将允许我们向更远的科技边疆迈进。这将增进我们的健康，改善我们的环境，以我们现在不能想象的方式促进经济增长。我们都知道，当科学技术和全球化的力量给我们所有人的生活带来如此之多的变化时，我们加强植根于我们本地社区和我们全国社会的纽带比以往任何时候都更加重要。

在不同的民众当中最有凝聚力的纽带莫过于公民服务。美国出现了一种新的服务精神——这是我们设法以美国国民服务队、扩大的和平队、与工商企业的前所未有的新伙伴关系、基金会、社区组织给予支持的一场运动。例如，有1.2万家公司参加的一种伙伴关系，现在已经使我们的65万名同胞从靠福利生活走向自食其力。还有一些伙伴关系是为了与毒品滥用和艾滋病作斗争，教年轻人学习识字，挽救美国的财富，加强艺术的发展，预防青少年怀孕，防止年轻人之间发生暴力，促进种族间的和解。美国人民已经开始合作了。

但是，我们还应采取更多行动促使美国人互相帮助。首先，我们应该帮助以信仰为基础的组织做出更多努力与贫困和毒品滥用作斗争，帮助人们回到正确的轨道，实施帮助未婚少女母亲的二次机会住宅这样的计划。其次，我们应该支持那些向慈善机构捐款，而其收入又不足以申请减税的美国人。今天晚上，我建议实现新的纳税刺激，允许没有开列捐款账单的中低收入公民获得这项减税。这只是公平的做法，这会让更多的人慷慨解囊。

我们应该做出更多努力帮助新移民充分参与我们的社会。由于这个原因，我建议增加开支教他们学习公民准则和英语。由于每一个人都是我们社会的一员，我们必须确保在今年的人口普查中把每一个人都登记在册。

在十年的时间里——只是十年，我们最大的州加利福尼亚将没有多数种族。在50年多一点的时间里，美国将没有多数种族。在一个相互联系更加密切的世界里，这种多样性可能是我们的最大力量。请环顾一下这个大厅。请环顾一下。本届国会议员来自几乎所有的种族、民族和宗教背景。我认为，你们会同意的看法是，由于这个原因，美国才更加强大。

你们还得同意的是，你们刚才为之鼓掌的所有这些差异常常引起仇恨和分裂，甚至在这里也是如此。就在过去几年里，得克萨斯州的一名男子被活活拖死，就是因为他是黑人。一名男子在怀俄明州被暗杀，就是因为他是同性恋者。去年，美国黑人、亚裔美国人和犹太人遭枪杀，就是因为他们的血统。这不是美国的方式，我们必须与此划清界限。

我请求你们划清这条界线，刻不容缓地通过仇恨犯罪预防法和就业不歧视法。我请求你们重新批准防止对妇女暴力法。

最后，我建议为我们实施民权法进行数额最大的投资，因为任何美国人在购买住宅、就业、上学或获得贷款方面都不得受到歧视。法律中给予的保护应该是事实上的保护。

去年2月，我成立了白宫美国大同办公室，以促进种族和解，因为我认为这一点非常重要。这是我心目中的英雄之一汉克·阿伦终其一生所做的事情。从他作为棒球名手的时代到他最近从事的调停活动，他总是让人们走到一起。我们应该以他为榜样，我们为他今天晚上的光临感到荣幸。汉克·阿伦，请站起来。

有关这个问题，我还想再讲一件事。我希望各位下次对你们对面的一位同事发火的时候考虑这个问题。去年秋天，希拉里在白宫举办了她的一次新千年晚宴，我们邀请到一位非常杰出的科学家，他是整个人类基因研究工作的专家。他说，不管什么种族，我们的基因有99.9%是相同的。

现在，当你们在这里环顾周围的时候，你们可能感到很不自在，但是这是值得牢记的。我们可以对此一笑了之，但是你们应该想一想。现代科学证实了古代信仰始终传授的东西：最重要的生活事实是我们是同一个人类。因此，我们应该不仅仅容忍我们的多样性，我们应该尊重这种多样性，颂扬这种多样性。

同胞们，我每次准备发表国情咨文时都对我们国家充满希望和期望，并为之激动万分。但是今天晚上非常特殊，因为我们处在新千年的开始。回顾过去，我们看到美国取得的巨大成就。展望未来，我们看到前景广阔，前途无限。对于我们目前的进步与繁荣，我们都应该感到满意，同时又要戒骄戒躁。我们都应为即将来临的机会充满惊奇与喜悦。我们应该以十足的决心最充分地利用这种机会。

你们知道，当宪法的制定者们在费城制定完我们的宪法时，本杰明·弗兰克林站在独立纪念馆里，看着照在一张椅背上的阳光陷入沉思。太阳从地平线上冉冉升起。他当时说了这样一句话——他说：“我常常想知道太阳是在升起还是在下落。”弗兰克林说：“今天，我高兴地知道，它是冉冉升起的太阳。”如今，由于后来的每一代美国人都在使自由的火焰熊熊燃烧，照亮了这些有可能开拓的边疆，我们现在仍都沐浴在弗兰克林先生冉冉升起的太阳的光辉与温暖之中。

224年之后，美国革命在继续。我们仍是一个年轻的国家。只要我们的理想超出我们的记忆，美国将永远年轻。这就是我们的使命，这就是我们骄傲的时刻。

谢谢大家，愿上帝保佑你们，保佑美国。