State of the Union 1986

The 1986 State of the Union Address delivered February 4, 1986, was delayed following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster which killed its seven crew members. Reagan reports the U.S. is the economic miracle to which the world once again turns, with record economic growth and inflation cut from over 12 to under 4 percent.

But the federal budget system is broken. “We do not face large deficits because American families are undertaxed; we face those deficits because the Federal Government overspends.” “We must proceed with Grace commission reforms against waste.” Tax cuts have done more to “help America's economy break free than any program since John Kennedy's tax cut almost a quarter century ago.”

We “must redouble our efforts for freer and fairer trade.” We oppose legislation touted as providing protection that raises prices for us all.

We see a renaissance in education and support “vouchers that give parents freedom of choice”. Hundreds of billions of dollars in poverty programs have led to a breakdown of the family and deteriorating schools. As Franklin Roosevelt said, “Welfare is a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.” Welfare “should be judged by how many of its recipients become independent of welfare.”

Reagan sees technology as the solution to “the greatest problem of the 20th century. A security shield can one day render nuclear weapons obsolete and free mankind from the prison of nuclear terror.”

“The American dream is a song of hope… to discover a new universe inside a tiny silicon chip or a single human cell.” “So, let us go forward to create our world of tomorrow in faith, in unity, and in love. God bless you, and God bless America.”

Audio recording courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

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Release date

Audiobook: 28 June 2024