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January 22, 1971, State of the Union II [4 of 4]

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DETERMINED TO BE AN ADMINISTRATIVE MARKING MEMORANDUM E.O. 12065, Section 6-102 By MH NARS, Date 9/1/81 THE WHITE HOUSE CONFIDENTIAL WASHINGTON January 21, 1971 THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN X MEMORANDUM FOR: THE PRESIDENT FROM: RAY PRICE SUBJECT: State of the Union On the quote you were looking for "I'd rather be a citizen. ")the nearest that either our researchers or their outside consultants have been able to come up with is this from John Adams, in a letter to Abigail: "I had rather build stone wall upon Penn's Hill, than to be the first Prince in Europe. " Resy CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum DETERMINED TO BE AN ADMINISTRATIVE MARKING E.O. 12065, Section 6-102 MEMORANDUM By MH NARS, Date 9/1/81 THE WHITE HOUSE CONFIDENTIAL WASHINGTON January 21. 1971 THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN MEMORANDUM FOR: THE PRESIDENT FROM: RAY PRICE SUBJECT: State of the Union The nightmare/dream le ad you asked for is attached. Our hand count of the 8th Draft (original version; not the revised) has now been completed: 4940. RuP1 Attachment Nightmare/dream lead opener to substitute for pp 1-2 - 8th Draft CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum MEMORANDUM THE WHITE HOUSE CONFIDENTIAL WASHINGTON January 21. 1971 DETERMINED TO BE AN ADMINISTRATIVE MARKING E.O. 12065, Section 6-102 By MH NARS, Date 9/1/81 MEMORANDUM FOR: THE PRESIDENT FROM: RAY PRICE SUBJECT: State of the Union The nightmare/dream le ad you asked for is attached. Our hand count of the 8th Draft (original version; not the revised) has now been completed: 4940. RuP1 Attachment Nightmare/dream lead opener to substitute for pp 1-2 - 8th Draft CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum DETERMINED TO BE AN ADMINISTRATIVE MARKING E.O. 12065, Section 6-102 CONFIDENTIAL By MH NARS, Date 9/1/81 January 21, 1971 STATE OF THE UNION Possible nightmare/dream opener (Substitute for pages 1 and 2) Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our distinguished guests and my fellow Americans: I take a very special pleasure this evening in welcoming the members of the 92nd Congress -- both those who are returning, and those newly elected. [Albert ad lib] This 92nd Congress has a chance to be recorded as the greatest Congress in America's history. In these troubled years just past, America has been going through a long nightmare of war and division, of crime and inflation. Even more deeply, we have gone through a tortured nightmare of the America n spirit. But now that nightmare is ending. Now we can let our spirits begin to soar again. Now we are ready again for the lift of a driving dream. The people of this nation are now eager to get on with the quest for new greatness which has always characterized Americans and which has kept this nation free. They see challenges throughout the land, and they are prepared to meet those challenges. It is for us here to open the doors that will set free again the real greatness of this nation - - the genius of the American people. How do we must The challyn CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum DETERMINED TO BE AN ADMINISTRATIVE MARKING E.O. 12065, Section 6-102 By MH HARS, Date 9/1/81 CONFIDENTIAL January 21, 1971 STATE OF THE UNION Possible nightmare/dream opener (Substitute for pages 1 and 2) Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our distinguished guests and my fellow Americans: I take a very special pleasure this evening in welcoming the members of the 92nd Congress -- - both those who are returning, and those newly elected. [Albert ad lib] This 92nd Congress has a chance to be recorded as the greatest Congress in America's history. In these troubled years just past, America has been going through a long nightmare of war and division, of crime and inflation. Even more deeply, we have gone through a tortured nightmare of the American spirit. But now that nightmare is ending. Now we can let our spirits begin to soar again. Now we are ready again for the lift of a driving dream. The people of this nation are now eager to get on with the quest for new greatness which has always characterized Americans and which has kept this nation free. They see challenges throughout the land, and they are prepared to meet those challenges. It is for us here to open the doors that will set free again the real greatness of this nation -- the genius of the Americanpeople. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU -- 8th Draft 1/20/71 How shall we - meet 3 - this challenge? What shall we do with this new beginning? And how can we tr uly Has can we truely a open the doors, and set free the full genius of our people? The way in which the 92nd Congress answers these questions will determine its place in history. More importantly, it can determine this nation's place in history as we enter the third century of our indepen- dence. As we turn : to this task together, we see six great goals that can make this Congress the most important since the first American Congress -- the Continental Congress -- met years ago. In discussing these great goals I am dealing tonight only with matters on the domestic side of the nation's agenda. I shall make a separate report to the Congress and the nation next month on develop- ments in our foreign policy. Our ability to achieve a lasting peace in the world of course will have a great, and even decisive, bearing on all of our lives here at home. But we now can confidently base our domestic plans on the prospect of such a peace. The first of these six great goals is already before the Congress. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 4 - I urge that the unfinished business of the 91st Congress must be the first priority of the 92nd. Over the next two weeks, I will re submit more than 35 pieces of proposed legislation on which action was not completed last year. The most important is welfare reform. I Iwas especially pleased that with bipartisan cooperation, this was the first bill introduced in the House of Representatives in yesterday's opening session. The present welfare system has become a monstrous, consuming outrage -- an outrage against the community, against the taxpayer, and particularly against the children it is supposed to help. Every day the situation grows worse -- and the welfare rolls grow longer. It was less than a year and a half ago that I proposed my plan for welfare reform to the Congress. Since that time, the number of people receiving Aid to Families with Depondent Children has grown by 2 million and the annual rate of expenditures has risen by more than a billion and a half dollars. If present trends continue these annual expenditures will triple in the next five years to more than $15 billion. But even worse than the cost in terms of money is the cost that cannot be measured in dollars the increase in human despair, disillusion and disenchantment. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft Draft 1/20/71 - 5 - And what will we get for our $15 billion? Just more of the same -- more of the old incentives to avoid work instead of accepting it, more of the old incentives to break families apart instead of holding them together and more millions of children with their childhood blighted and headed toward their own lives of drabness and dependency. We may honestly disagree on what to do about it. But we can all agree that the present welfare system is a national disgrace and-we must meet the challenge not by pouring more money into the old system, but by discarding it and adopting a new program. We must start getting people off the welfare rolls and onto payrolls. Let us place a floor under the income of every family in America. But let us also establish an effective work incentive and an effective work requirement. Let us provide the means by which more can help them selves Let us generously help those who cannot help themselves. But let us stop helping those who are able to help themselves and refuse to do so. The second great goal is to achieve what Americans have not en- joyed since 1957 -- prosperity in peacetime. The tide of inflation has been turned. The rise in the cost of living, which had been gathering dangerous momentum in the late Sixties, was actually reduced last year. Inflation will be further reduced this year. High interest rates have dramatically declined, which is already making CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 -5 a - it easier for American families to buy a house or to finance a car But as we have made the move from runaway inflation toward atthe reasonable stability rasiwe have made the move from a wartime economy CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 6 - to a peacetime economy, we have paid a price in unemployment. One million, nine hundred thousand jobs came to an end in our armed forces and defense UXA we plants should in this past take two no years. comfort for the fact It is true that despite this the level of unemployment in this transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy is lower than at any peacetime year of the 1960s. But although that level may have been consider ed good enough in the early Sixties; it is not good enough for this Administ ation. It is not good enough for the man who is unemployed in the Seventies. We must do better for workers in peacetime, and we will do better. To achieve this, I shall submit an expansionary budget this year one that will help stimulate the economy and thereby open up new job opportunities for millions of Americans. It will be a full-employment budget -- that is, a budget designed to be in balance if the economy were operating at its peak potential. By spending as if we were at full employment, we will help to bring about full employment. I ask the Congress to accept these expansionary policies -- to accept the concept of the full employment budget. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 7 - At the same time, I ask the Congress to cooperate in resisting expenditures that go beyond the limits of the full employment budget. For as we wage a campaign to bring about a widely shared prosperity, we must not permit a rapidly rising cost of living to undermine that prosperity. This Administration has proven it has the courage to step on the brakes when the cost of living speeds up too fast. We now have our foot on the accelerator, but this time business, labor and govern- ment all must realize that the American people expect them to stay within the speed limit. With the stimulus and the discipline of a full employment budget; with the cooperation of the independent Federal Reserve System to provide fully for the monetary needs of a growing economy; and with a much greater effort by labor and management to make their wage and price decisions in the light of the national interest and their own long-run best interests -- we shall gain the goal of a new prosperity: more jobs and more profits, without inflation and without war. This is a great goal, and one that we can achieve together. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 8 - The third great goal is to continue with greater vigor the great effort of which this past year marked SO dramatic a beginning: to restore and enhance our natural environment. Building on the foundation laid in the 37-point program I submitted to Congress last year, I will be proposing a strong new set of initiatives to clean up our air and water, to combat noise, and to preserve and restore our surroundings. And not only to meet today's needs but to anticipate those of tomorrow, these pro- posals will include the most extensive program ever proposed by a President to expand the nation's parks, public recreation areas and open spaces in a way that truly brings parks to the people. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL Reve SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 9 - As a fourth great goal, I will offer a far-reaching set of pro- posals for improving America's health care and making it available more fairly to more people. In recent years, almost the entire focus of government support has been on helping people meet the cost of medical care. But pro- tection against the cost of care does little good when the care itself is not available because enough doctors, or nurses, or hospitals or other facilities are not available, or not available where they are needed; or because we have not done all we can to find cures for dreaded diseases; or because our health policies are designed only to take care of people after they get sick instead of keeping them from getting sick. This is why my health proposals will emphasize the supply of medical care. It will also include an improved program for finane- cing health care that many people now need but cannot afford. American has long been the wealthiest nation in the world. Now it is time we became the healthiest nation in the world. To help us become so, I will propose: -- A program designed to insure that no American family will be prevented from obtaining a reasonable and basic standard of CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 10 - medical care by inability to pay. -- A major increase in aid to medical schools, SO that we can increase the number of doctors 50 percent by the end of the decade. -- New incentives to encourage better preventive medicine, greater use of nurses and medical assistants and a fairer distribu- tion of medical services -- SO that care is available where sick people are rather than being concentrated primarily where only the rich people are. As part of our Family Health care, I will ask an appropriation of an extra $100 million to launch an intensive campaign to find cures for cancer and sickle-cell anemia -- and I will ask later for what additional funds may become necessary. With the kind of concen- trated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon, we now can also conquer these dread diseases. Let us make a total national commitment to do so. The fifth great goal is to strengthen and renew our State and local governments. As we approach our 200th anniversary in 1976, we remember also that as this nation launched itself as a loose confederation of CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 11 - separate States, without a workable central government. At that time, the mark of its leaders' vision was that they quickly saw the need to balance the separate powers of the States with a government of central powers. They saw that only if the young nation could act as one nation could the experiment succeed. And SO they gave us a Constitution of balanced powers, of unity with diversity -- and so clear was their vision that it survives as the oldest written Constitution still in force in the world today. For almost two centuries since -- and dramatically in the 1930s -- at those great turning-points when the question has been between the States and the Federal Government, it has been resolved in favor of a stronger central government. During this time the nation grew and prospered. But one thing history tells us is that no great movement goes in the same direction forever. Nations change, they adapt, or they slowly die. And indication of how America has changed is that my home town of Whittier, California - with a population of only 67,000 -- has a budget for 1971 bigger than the entire Federal budget in 1791. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 11A - Now the time has come to take a new direction, and once again to introduce a new balance in our approach to government. The time has come to reverse the flow of power and resources from the States and communities to Washington, and start power and resources flowing back from Washington to the States and communities and most important, to the people, all across America. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 12 - I propose to the Congress tonight that we enact a plan of revenue sharing historic in scope and bold in concept. The time has come for a new partnership between the Federal Government and the States and localities. During these past two years I have talked with hundreds of Governors, Mayors, County Executives and other State and local officials. Their needs are real and acute. All across America today, States and localities are confronted with a financial crisis. Some already have been cutting back on essential services -- for example, just recently San Diego and Cleveland cut back on trash collections; Los Angeles had to reduce its force of water and power workers. Most are caught between the prospects of bankruptcy on the one hand and adding to what already is a crushing tax burden on the other. Already State and local debt has gone up 600 percent in the past two decades.) State and local taxes today are more than two and a half times what they were only ten years ago, and constantly going higher. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 13 - So let us put the money where the needs are. And let us put the power to spend it where the people are. Rather than having a few people in Washington making the decisions as to what government ought to do for people, let us give the American people a bigger voice in determining their future and this nation's future. I propose that the Congress make a $16 billion investment in renewing State and local government -- with $5 billion of this in new and unrestricted funds, to be used as the States and localities see fit, and with the other $11 billion provided by converting one-third of the money going to the present narrow-purpose aid programs into Federal revenue sharing funds for six broad purposes -- such as urban develop- ment, rural development education and the like but with the States and localities making their own local decisions on how it should be spent. Under this plan, the Federal Government will provide the States and localities with more money and less interference -- and by cutting down the interference the same amount of money will go a lot further. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 14 - This new support for State and local government does not mean a dismantling of the Federal Government, or an abandoning of its responsibilities. Established functions that are clearly and essentially Federal in nature will still be performed by the Federal Government. New functions that need to be sponsored or performed by the Federal Government -- such as those I have urged tonight in welfare and health -- will be added to the Federal agenda. Whenever it makes the best sense for us to act as a whole nation, the Federal Government will lead the way. Neither will revenue sharing be a vehicle for retreat from Federal protections for the rights of racial and other minorities. The revenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress will include the safeguards against discrimination that accompany all other Federal funds allocated to the States. Neither the President nor the Congress nor the conscience of the nation can permit money which comes from all the people to be used in a way which discriminates against some of the people. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 15 - What this does mean is that once again we are placing our trust in people. I have faith in people. I trust the judgment of people. Let us give the people a chance, a bigger voice in deciding their future and the future of this country. The further away government is from people, the stronger govern- ment becomes and the weaker people become. And a nation with a strong government and a weak people is like an empty shell. The idea that a bureaucratic elite in Washington knows what is best for people and that you cannot trust local government is in effect contend- ing that you C annot trust people to govern themselves. This notion is completely foreign to the American experience. Local government is the government closest to the people and most responsive to the people; it is people's government far more than the government in Washington. people came to America because they wanted to determine their own future rather than to live in a country where others determined their future for them. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 16 - Let us share our resources: -- to rescue the States and localities from the brink of financial crisis -- and to give homeowners and wage earners a chance to escape from ever-higher property taxes and sales taxes. Let us share our resources for two other reasons as well. The first of these reasons has to do with government itself, and the second with the individual. On every hand, we can feel a rising frustration with governments that seem incapable of performing. The fact is that we have made the Federal Government soostrong it is musclebound and the States and localities so weak they are impo- - tent. States and localities are unable to do what they should be doing because Washington holds both the reins of power and the strings of the purse. There is an old saying that "you can't fight city hall. 11 Well, this is not true. You can fight city hall -- and what is more you can fight it a lot more effectively and with a lot better chance of success CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 17 - than you can fight some distant department down in Washington. Be- yond this, you can work with city hall -- and you can have a better chance of getting city hall to work with you than you could in the case of that same distant department down in Washington. The idea that government in Washington, D. C. is inevitably more wise, honest and efficient than government at the local or State level is a complete rejection of the American experience. The honesty and efficiency of government depends on people, and government at all levels has good people and bad people. The major difference between governments is that government closest to people is most responsive to people. We can also have more creative government in more places if we put more power in more places. That way we multiply the num- ber of people with the ability to make things happen -- and we can open the way to a new burst of creative energy throughout America. The final reason I urge this historic shift is much more personal, for each and every one of us. The most important thing in life is not how much we own or even how well fed or how well clothed we are. These matter, yes; they matter very much. But what matters most is what each of us carries CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 17A - within himself, in his soul and spirit: The sense that he matters, that he has a voice, that he has a hand in the shaping of his own destiny. Millions of frustrated young Americans today are crying out -- asking not what will government do for me but what can we do, how can we contribute, how can we matter? The difficulty today is that as far as government is concerned all that seems to matter is what happens in Washington, D. C. Let us answer them. Let us say we hear you and we will give you a chance. We are going to give you a new chance to have more to say about the decisions that affect your future -- to participate in government -- because we are going to provide more centers of power where what you do will really count. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 18 - The sixth great goal is a complete reform of the Federal Government itself. In the course of these past 24 years I have had a rare oppor- tunity. I have served in the House, in the Senate, foreeight years as Vice President. Then, for eight years as a private citizen, I had a chance to reflect on what I had seen and learned. And now, in these two yearsas President, I have seen the government from yet another perspective. Based this experience, and based on a long and intensive study with the aid of the best advice available, I have concluded that a sweeping reorganization of the Executive Branch itself is needed if the government is to keep up with the times and the needs of the people. In this past year we have made a beginning. We took the Post Office out of politics. We brought pollution enforcement activities together in a new Environmental Protection Agency. We reorganized CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - th Draft 1/20/71 - 19 - the Executive Office of the President. We conformed the field oper- ations of the major departments to a new pattern that made it easier for govevnors and mayors and citizens to deal with them and to get decisions. Each was the subject of often harshly critical questioning before it was done. But after it was done, the principal question asked was why it had not been done sooner. For with each of these changes, the government did a better job for the people. I propose we reduce the present twelve Cabinet Departments to eight. I propose that the Departments of State, Treasury, Defense and Justice remain, and the other seven departments be consolidated into four: Human Resources, Community Development, Natural Resources, and Economic Development. Let us look at what these would be: -- First, a department dealing with the concerns of people -- as individuals, as members of a family -- a department focused on human needs. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 20 - -- Second, a department concerned with the community -- and with all that it takes to make a com- munity function as a community. -- Third, a department concerned with our physical environment, and with the preservation and balanced use of those great natural resources on which our nation depends. - - And fourth, a department concerned with our prosperity - - with our jobs, our businesses, and those many activities that keep our economy running smoothly and well. Under this plan, rather than dividing up our departments by narrow subjects, we would organize them around the great purposes of government. Officials concerned with a common goal would work together in a single chain of command. Rather than scattering respon- sibility by adding new levels of bureaucracy, we would focus and concen- trate the responsibility for getting problems solved. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 21 - This follows a simple basic principle: that the activities of government should be organized around its major purposes, and that the programs related to those purposes should be brought together. With these four departments, when we have a problem we will know where to go -- and the department will have the authority and the resources to do something about it. Over the years we have added departments and created agencies, each to serve a new constituency or to handle a particular task -- and these have grown and multiplied in what has become a hopeless confusion of form and function. Yet as any organization grows and takes on new functions, and as the circumstances it deals with change, it too has to change in order to deal with those new circumstances. Government is no exception. Change is hard. And a change so sweeping as this requires many others to change too -- not least the Congress itself, because its com- mittees and the departments have developed together But without change there can be no progress. And for each of us the question must be, not "Will change cause me inconvenience?" but "Will change bring the country progress?" CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 22 - I have dealt with revenue sharing and government reorganization separately, but they are two parts of an overall design. Either by itself would be a vast improvement. But each is only half the design. If the new partnership is to work, it has to be strengthened at both ends. The States and localities need more authority and more resources. The Federal Government needs less overlap, less confusion, and a sharper concentration of its resources and its energies. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 23 - I realize that what I am asking is that not only have to charge the Executive Department in Washington but even this Congress' will be giving up by some of its power. from page H the encircled parta lestt Giving up power is hard. But let us remember that the truly revered leaders in world history are those who gave power to people, not those who took it away. As we consider these reforms we will be acting, not for the next two years or the next ten years, but for the next hundred years. So let us approach these six great goals with a sense, not only of this moment in history, but also of history itself. Let us act with the willingness to work together and the vision and the boldness and the courage of those great Americans who met in Philadelphia 190 years ago. Let us leave a heritage as they did -- not just for our children but for millions yet unborn of a new nation where every American will have a chance not only to live in peace and to enjoy prosperity and opportunity, but to participate in a system of government where he knows not only his votes but his ideas count -- a system of government which will provide the means for America to reach heights of achieve- ment undreamed of before. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 24 - They left that heritage because they had a vision -- not only of what the nation was, but of what it could become. As I think of that vision, I recall that America was founded as the land of the open door -- as a haven for the oppressed, a land of opportunity, a place of refuge and of hope. When the first settlers opened the door of America three and a half centuries ago, they came to escape persecution and to find oppor- - tunity -- and they left wide the door of welcome for others to follow. When the thirteen colonies declared their independence almost two centuries ago, they opened the door to a new vision of liberty and of human fulfillment -- not just for an elite, but for all. To the generations that followed, America's was the open door that beckoned millions from the old world to the new in search of a better life, a freer life, a fuller life, in which by their own decisions they could shape their own destinies. They came to find opportunity for themselves and to ensure it for their children. For the black American, the Indian, the Medican-American, and for those others in our land who have been oppressed, the nation at last has begun to confront the need to press open the door of full and equal opportunity, and of human dignity. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 25 - With these changes I have proposed tonight, we can open the door to a new era of opportunity. We can open the door to a new partnership among governments at all levels, and between those governments and the people themselves. We can open the door of full and effective participation by all Americans in the decisions that affect their lives. And by so doing, we can open wide the doors of human fulfillment for millions of individual human beings here in America. In the next few weeks I will be spelling out in greater detail the way I propose that we achieve these six great goals. I ask this Congress to be responsive. If it is, then the 92nd Congress, at the end of its term, will be able to look back on a record more splendid than any in our history. This can be the Congress that helped us end the longest war in the nation's history, and end it in a way that will give us at last a genuine chance for a full generation of peace. This can be the Congress that helped achieve an expanding economy, with full employment and without inflation -- and without the deadly stimulus of war. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 26 - This can be the Congress that reformed a welfare system that has robbed recipients of their dignity while it robbed States and cities of their resources. This can be the Congress that launched a new era in American medicine, in which the costs were made less burdensome while the quality of medical care was enhanced. But above all, what this Congress can be remembered for is opening the way to a new American Revolution -- a new American Revolution in which power was turned back to the people -- in which government at all levels was refreshed and renewed, and made truly responsive. This can be a revolution as profound, as far-reaching, as exciting, as that first revolution almost 200 years ago -- and it can mean that America will enter its third century with all the vigor and freshness with which it began its first. If the Congress should act to achieve even one of these great goals, it would be a good Congress. If it acts on all of them, it can be the greatest Congress in the history of this great and good nation. #### CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum MEMORANDUM THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON January 21, 1971 THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN Y MEMORANDUM FOR: THE PRESIDENT FROM: RAY PRICE SUBJECT: State of the Union There was a mistake in numbering the pages in this latest draft. What appears on page 15 should follow page 11. Atta chment Ruin Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum 40.39 4110 CONFIDENTIAL STATE OF THE UNION 11th Draft Revised January 22, 1971 Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our distinguished guests and my fellow Americans: This 92nd Congress has a chance to be recorded as the greatest Congress in America's history. In these troubled years just past, America has been going through a long nightmare of war and division, of crime and infla- tion. Even more deeply, we have gone through a long, dark night of the American spirit. But now that night is ending. Now we must let our spirits soar again. Now we are ready for the lift of a driving dream. The people of this nation are eager to get on with the quest for new greatness. They see challenges, and they are prepared to meet those challenges. It is for us here to open the doors that will set free again the real greatness of this nation -- the genius of the American people. How shall we meet this challenge ? How can we truly open the doors, and set free the full genius of our people? DETERMINED TO BE AN ADMINISTRATIVE MARKING CONFIDENTIAL E.O. 12065, Section 6-102 By MH NARS, Date 9/1/81 169 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 -. 2 - The way in which the 92nd Congress answers these questions will determine its place in history. More importantly, it can deter- mine this nation's place in history as we enter the third century of our independence. Tonight, I shall present to the Congress six great goals. I shall ask not simply for more new programs in the old framework, but to change the framework itself - - to reform the entire structure of American government so we can make it again fully responsive to the needs and the wishes of the American people. If we act boldly -- if we seize this moment and achieve these goals, we can close the gap between promise and performance in American government, and bring together the resources of the nation and the spirit of the people. In discussing these great goals, I am dealing tonight only with matters on the domestic side of the nation's agenda. I shall make a separate report to the Congress and the nation next month on developments in our foreign policy. The first of these six great goals is already before the Con- gress. CONFIDENTIAL 1.81 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 3 - I urge that the unfinished business of the 91st Congress be made the first priority of the 92nd. Congress to take action on Over the next two weeks, I will call upon/ more than 35 pieces of proposed legislation on which action was not completed last year. The most important is welfare reform. The present welfare system has become a monstrous, consuming outrage - an outrage against the community, against the taxpayer, and particularly against the children it is supposed to help. We may honestly disagree on what to do about it. But we can all agree that we must meet the challenge not by pouring more money into the old system, but by abolishing it and adopting a new one. Let us place a floor under the income of every family with children in America - - and without those demeaning, soul-stifling affronts to human dignity that so blight the lives of welfare children today. But let us also establish an effective work incentive and an effective work requirement. Let us provide the means by which more can help them- selves. Let us generously help those who are not able to help themselves. But let us stop helping those who are able to help themselves but refuse to do so. CONFIDENTIAL 208 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 -- 4 - The second great goal is to achieve what Americans have not enjoyed since 1957 -- full prosperity in peacetime. The tide of inflation has turned. The rise in the cost of living, which had been gathering dangerous momentum in the late Sixties, was reduced last year. Inflation will be further reduced this year. But as we have made the move from runaway inflation toward reasonable price stability and as at the same time we have made the move from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy, w'e have paid a price in unemployment. One million, nine hundred thousand jobs came to an end in our armed forces and defense plants in this past two years. We should take no comfort from the fact that the level of unem- ployment in this transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy is lower than in any peacetime year of the 1960s. This is not good enough for the man who is unemployed in the Sevénties. We must do better for workers in peacetime and we will do better. To achieve this, I will submit an expansionary budget this year one that will help stimulate the economy and thereby open up new job opportunities for millions of Americans. CONFIDENTIAL 30 + 5 203 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 5 - It will be a full employment budget, a budget designed to be in balance if the economy were operating at its peak potential. By spending as if we were at full employment, we will help to bring about full employment. I ask the Congress to accept these expansionary policies -- to accept the concept of the full employment budget. At the same time, I ask the Congress to cooperate in resisting expenditures that go beyond the limits of the full employment budget. For as we wage a campaign to bring about a widely shared prosperity, we must not re-ignite the fires of inflation and SO undermine that prosperity. With the stimulus and the discipline of a full employment budget; with the commitment of the independent Federal Reserve System to provide fully for the monetary needs of a growing economy; and with a much greater effort by labor and management to make their wage and price decisions in the light of the national interest and their own long-run best interests -- then for the worker, the farmer, the consumer, and for Americans everywhere we shall gain the goal of a new prosperity: more jobs, more income and more profits, without inflation and without war. This is a great goal; and one that we can achieve together. CONFIDENTIAL 214 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 6 - The third great goal is to continue the effort so dramatically begun this past year: to restore and enhance our natural environ- ment. Building on the foundation laid in the 37 -point program I sub- mitted to Congress last year, I will propose a strong new set of initiatives to clean up our air and water, to combat noise, and to preserve and restore our surroundings. I will have programs to make better use of our land, and to encourage a balanced national growth that will enhance the quality of life in both urban and rural America. And not only to meet today's needs but to anticipate those of tomorrow, I will put forward the most extensive program ever proposed by a President to expand the nation's parks, park recrea- tion areas and open spaces in a way that truly brings parks to the people. For only if we leave a legacy of parks will the next generation have parks to enjoy. As a fourth great goal, I will offer a far-reaching set of pro- posals for improving America's health care and making it available more fairly to more people. CONFIDENTIAL 186+2 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 7 - I will propose: -- A program to insure that no American family will be prevented from obtaining basic medical care by inability to pay. -- A major increase in and redirection of aid to medical schoòls, to greatly increase the number of doctors and other health personnel. - - New incentives to encourage better preventive medi- cine, greater use of nurses and medical assistants and a fairer distribution of medical services -- SO that care is available where sick people are rather than being concen- trated primarily where rich people are. I will also ask appropriation of an extra $10.0 million to launch an intensive campaign to find a cure for cancer, and I will ask later for what additional funds may become necessary. The time has come when the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread dis- - ease. Surely these can be cured, and they must be cured. Let us make a total national commitment to do SO. 44 + #42 CONFIDENTIAL 4,35 167 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 8 - America has long been the wealthiest nation in the world. Now it is time we became the healthiest nation in the world. The fifth great goal is to strengthen and renew our State and local governments. As we approach our 200th anniversary in 1976, we remember that this nation launched itself as a loose confederation of separate States, without a workable central government. At that time, the mark of its leaders' vision was that they quickly saw the need to balance the separate powers of the States with a government of central powers. And so they gave us a Constitution of balanced powers, of unity with diversity -- and SO clear was their vision that it survives as the oldest written Constitution still in force in the world today. For almost two centuries since -- and dramatically in the 1930s at those great turning -points when the question has been between the States and the Federal Government, it has been resolved in favor of a stronger central government. During this time the nation grew and prospered. But one thing history tells us is that no great movement goes in the same direction forever. Nations change, they adapt, or they slowly die. CONFIDENTIAL 199 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 9 - The time has come to reverse the flow of power and resources from the States and communities to Washington, and start power and resources flowing back from Washington to the Statesand communities and most important, to the people, all across America. The time has come for a new partnership between the Federal Government and the States and localities. I propose to the Congress tonight that we enact a plan of revenue sharing historic in scope and bold in concept. All across America today, States and cities are confronted with a financial crisis. Some already have been cutting back on essential services -- for example, just recently San Diego and Cleveland cut back on trash collections; Los Angeles had to reduce its force of water and power workers. Most are caught between the prospects of bank- ruptcy on the one hand and adding to an already crushing tax burden on the other. As one indication of the rising costs of local government, I dis- covered the other day that my home town of Whittier, California - with a population of only 67,000 - has a budget for 1971 bigger than the entire Federal budget in 1791. Now the time has come to take a new direction, and once again to introduce a new and more creative balance in our approach to government. +22 CONFIDENTIAL 207 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 . - 10 - So let us put the money where the needs are. And let us put the power to spend it where the people are. I propose that the Congress make a $16 billion investment in renewing State and local government -- with $5 billion of this in new and unrestricted funds, to be used as the States and localities, see fit, and with the other $11 billion provided by converting one-third allocating $1 billion of funds new and of the money going to the present narrow-purpose aid programs into Federal revenue sharing funds for six broad purposes -- urban development, rural development, education, transportation, man- job power training and law enforcement -- but with the States and localities making their own local decisions on how it should be spent. *A The revenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress will be all will include the safeguards against discrimination that accompany all revenue embodied in a group of bills defining these general + special sharing other Federal funds allocated to the States, Neither the President proposalo nor the Congress nor the conscience of the nation can permit money which comes from all the people to be used in a way which discrimi- nates against some of the people. The Federal Government will still have a large and vital role to play in achieving our national purposes. Established functions CONFIDENTIAL 197 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum Page 10 Insert A. For the next fiscal year, this would increase total Federal aid to the States and localities by more than twenty-five percent over the present level. Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 10 - So let us put the money where the needs are. And let us put the power to spend it where the people are. I propose that the Congress make a $16 billion investment in renewing State and local government -- with $5 billion of this in new and unrestricted funds, to be used as the States and localities see bellion of allocating fit, and with the other $11 billion provided by converting one - third of the money going to the present narrow-purpose aid programs into Federal revenue sharing funds for six broad purposes - - urban development, rural development, education, transportation, -man- job power training and law enforcement -- but with the States and localities making their own local decisions on how it should be spent. KA The revenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress will be embodied no J Q.OLIE include the safeguards against discrimination that accompany all Lb. other Federal funds allocated to the States, Neither the President by nor the Congress nor the conscience of the nation can permit money which comes from all the people to be used in a way which discrimi- all nates against some of the people. will The Federal Government will still have a large and vital role to play in achieving our national purposes. Established functions CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum be embodied in a group of bills defining these general and special revenue sharing proposals. All will Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 11 - that are clearly and essentially Federal in nature will still bè per- formed by the Federal Government. New functions that need to be sponsored or performed by the Federal Government -- - such as those I have urged tonight in welfare and health -- will be added to the Federal agenda. Whenever it makes the best sense for us to act as a whole nation, the Federal Government will lead the way. But where State or local governments can better do what needs to be done, let us see that they have the resources to do it. Under this plan, the Federal Government will provide the States and localities with more money and less interference -- and by cutting down the interference the same amount of money will go a lot further. CONFIDENTIAL 127 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 12 - Let us share our resources: - - to rescue the States and localities from the brink of finan- cial crisis -- and to give homeowners and wage earners a chance to escape from ever-higher property taxes and sales taxes. Let us share our resources for two other reasons as well. The first of these reasons has to do with government itself, and the second with the individual. Let's face it. Most Americans today are simply fed up with government at all levels. The fact is that we have made the Federal Government SO strong it grows muscle-bound and the States and localities so weak they approach impotence. If we put more power in more places, we can make government more creative in more places. For that way we multiply the number of people with the ability to make things happen -- and we can open the way to a new burst of creative energy throughout America. CONFIDENTIAL +14 153 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 13 - The final reason Lurge this historic shift is much more per- sonál, for each and every one of us. Millions of frustrated young Americans today are crying out - - asking not what will government do for me, but what can I do, how can I contribute, how can I matter? Let us answer them. Let us say we hear you and we will give you a chance. We are going to give you a new chance to have more to say about the decisions that affect your future -- to participate in government -- because we are going to provide more centers of / power where what you do can make a difference that you can see and feel in your own life and the life of your whole community. The further away government is from people, the stronger government becomes and the weaker people become. And a nation with a strong government and a weak people is an empty shell. CONFIDENTIAL 157 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 14 - I reject the patronizing idea that government in Washington, D. C. is inevitably more wise, more honest and more efficient than govern- ment at the local or State level. The honesty and efficiency of govern- ment depends on people. Government at all levels has good people and bad people. And the way to get more good people into governme nt is to give them more freedom to do good things. The idea that a bureaucratic elite in Washington knows best what is best for people everywhere and that you cannot trust local govern- ment is really a contention that you cannot trust people to govern them- selves. This notion is completely foreign to the American experience. Local government is the government closest to the people and most responsive to the individual person; it is people's government in a far more intimate way than the government in Washington can ever be. People came to America because they wanted to determine their own future rather than to live in a country where others determined their future for them. What this change means is that once again we are placing our trust in people. I have faith in people. I trust the judgment of people. Let us give the people a chance, a bigger voice in deciding for themselves those questions that so greatly affect their lives. 1 CONFIDENTIAL 219 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 17 - The time has come to match our structure to our purposes -- - - to look with a fresh eye, and to organize the government by conscious, comprehensive design to meet the new needs of a new era. One hundred years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood on a battlefield and spoke of a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Too often since then, we have become a nation of the Govern- ment, by the Government, and for the Government. By enacting these reforms, we can renew that principle that Lincoln stated so simply and SO well. / By giving everyone's voice a chance to be heard, we will have government that truly is of the people. By creating more centers of meaningful power, more places where decisions that really count can be made, by giving more people a chance to do something, we can have government that truly is by the people. And by replacing our obsolete Federal machinery with a new, modern, functional design, we in Washington will at last be able to provide government that truly is for the people. CONFIDENTIAL +13 181 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 18 - I realize that what I am asking is that not only the Executive Branch in Washington but even this Congress will have to change by giving up some of its power. Change is hard. But without change there can be no progress. And for each of us the question must be, not "Will change cause me inconvenience? 11 but "Will change bring the country progress? 11 Giving up power is hard. But I would urge all of you, as leaders of this country, to remember that the truly revered leaders in world history are those who gave power to people, not those who took it away. As we consider these reforms we will be acting, not for the next two years or the next ten years, but for the next hundred years. So let us approach these six great goals with a sense, not only of this moment in history, but also of history itself. Let us act with the willingness to work together and the vision and the boldness and the courage of those great Americans who met in Philadelphia almost 190 years ago to create a Constitution. Let us leave a heritage as they did - - not just for our children but for millions yet unborn - - of a nation where every American will have a chance not only to live in peace and to enjoy prosperity and opportunity, but to participate in a system of government where he knows not only his CONFIDENTIAL -14 241 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 19 - votes but his ideas count -- a system of government which will provide the means for America to reach heights of achievement undreamed of before. Those men who met in Philadelphia left a great heritage because they had a vision -- not only of what the nation was, but of what it could become. As I think of that vision, I recall that America was founded as the land of the open door -- as a haven for the oppressed, a land of opportunity, a place of refuge and of hope. / When the first settlers opened the door of America three and a half centuries ago, they came to escape persecution and to find opportunity -- and they left wide the door of welcome for others to follow. When the thirteen colonies declared their independence almost two centuries ago, they opened the door to a new vision of liberty and of human fulfillment -- not just for an elite, but for all. To the generations that followed, America's was the open door that beckoned millions from the old world to the new in search of a better life, a freer life, a fuller life, in which by their own decisions they could / shape their own destinies. They came to find opportunity for themselves and to ensure it for their children. -14 CONFIDENTIAL 215 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 20 - For the black American, the Indian, the Mexican-American, and for those others in our land who have not had an equal chance, the nation at last has begun to confront the need to press open the door of full and equal opportunity, and of human dignity. For all Americans, with these changes I have proposed tonight we can open the door to a new era of opportunity. We can open the door to full and effective participation in the decisions that affect their lives. We can open the door to a new partnership among governments at all levels, and between those governments and the people themselves. And by so doing, we can open wide the doors of human fulfillment for millions of people here in America. In the next few weeks I will spell out in greater detail the way I propose that we achieve these six great goals. I ask this Congress to be responsive. If it is, then the 92nd Congress, at the end of its term, will be able to look back on a record more splendid than any in our history. This can be the Congress that helped us end the longest war in the nation's history, and end it in a way that will give us at last a genuine chance for a full generation of peace. CONFIDENTIAL 223 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 -- 21 - This can be the Congress that helped achieve an expanding economy, with full employment and without inflation - - and without the deadly stimulus of war. This can be the Congress that reformed a welfare system that has robbed recipients of their dignity while it robbed States and cities of their resources. This can be the Congress that pressed forward the rescue of our environment, and established for the next generation an enduring legacy of parks for the people. This can be the Congress that launched a new era in American medicine, in which the quality of medical care was enhanced while the costs were made less burdensome. But above all, what this Congress can be remembered for is opening the way to a new American Revolution -- a peaceful revolution in which power was turned back to the people - - in which government at all levels was refreshed and renewed, and made truly responsive. This can be a revolution as profound, as far-reaching, as exciting, as that first revolution almost 200 years ago -- and it can mean that just five years from now America will enter its third century as a nation new in spirit, with all the vigor and freshness with which it began its first century. CONFIDENTIAL + 206 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 22 - My colleagues in the Congress -- these are great goals, and they can make the sessions of this Congress a great moment for America. So let us pledge together to go forward together -- to make this the greatest Congress in the history of this great and good nation, and by achieving these goals to give America the foundation today for its greatness tomorrow and in all the years to come. #### CONFIDENTIAL +1 69 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum DETERMINED TO BE AN ADMINISTRATIVE MARKING E.O. 12065, Section 6-102 By MH NARS, Date 9/1/81 CONFIDENTIAL STATE OF THE UNION 11th Draft January 22, 1971 Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our distinguished guests and my fellow Americans: This 92nd Congress has a chance to be recorded as the greatest Congress in America's history. In these troubled years just past, America has been going through a long nightmare of war and division, of crime and infla- tion. Even more deeply, we have gone through a long, dark night of the American spirit. But now that night is ending. Now we must let our spirits soar again. Now we are ready for the lift of a driving dream. The people of this nation are eager to get on with the quest for new greatness. They see challenges, and they are prepared to meet those challenges. It is for us here to open the doors that will set free again the real greatness of this nation -- the genius of the American people. How shall we meet this challenge ? How can we truly open the doors, and set free the full genius of our people? CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 2 - The way in which the 92nd Congress answers these questions will determine its place in history. More importantly, it can deter- mine this nation's place in history as we enter the third century of our independence. Tonight, I shall present to the Congress six great goals. I shall ask not simply for more new programssin the old framework, but to change the framework itself - - to reform the entire structure of American government SO we can make it again fully responsive to the needs and the wishes of the American people. If we act boldly -- if we seize this moment and achieve these goals we can close the gap between promise and performance in American government, and bring together the resources of the nation and the spirit of the people. In discussing these great goals, I am dealing tonight only with matters on the domestic side of the nation's agenda. I shall make a separate report to the Congress and the nation next month on developments in our foreign policy. The first of these six great goals is already before the Con- gress. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 3 - I urge that the unfinished business of the 91st Congress be made the first priority of the 92nd. Congress to take action on Over the next two weeks, I will call upon/ more than 35 pieces of proposed legislation on which action was not completed last year. The most important is welfare reform. The present welfare system has become a monstrous, consuming outrage -- an outrage against the community, against the taxpayer, and particularly against the children it is supposed to help. We may honestly disagree on what to do about it. But we can all agree that we must meet the challenge not by pouring more money into the old system, but by abolishing it and adopting a new one. Let us place a floor under the income of every family with children in America -- and without those demeaning, soul-stifling affronts to human dignity that SO blight the lives of welfare children today. But let us also establish an effective work incentive and an effective work requirement. Let us provide the means by which more can help them- selves # Let us generously help those who are not able to help themselves. But let us stop helping those who are able to help themselves but refuse to do so. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 4 - The second great goal is to achieve what Americans have not enjoyed since 1957 -- full prosperity in peacetime. The tide of inflation has turned. The rise in the cost of living, which had been gathering dangerous momentum in the late Sixties, was reduced last year. Inflation will be further reduced this year. But as we have have made the move from runaway inflation toward reasonable price stability andres at the same time have the movel from wartime moving a economy to a peacetime economy, we have paid a price in unemployment. One million, nine hundred thousand jobs came to in armed forces defense plants this past two years We should take no comfort from the fact that the level of unem- ployment in this transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy is lower than in any peacetime year of the 1960s. This is not good enough for the man who is unemployed in the Seventies. We must do better for workers in peacetime and we will do better. To achieve this, I will submit an expansionary budget this year one that will help stimulate the economy and thereby open up new job opportunities for millions of Americans. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 5 - It will be a full employment budget, a budget designed to be in balance if the economy were operating at its peak potential. By spending as if we were at full employment, we will help to bring about full employment. I ask the Congress to accept these expansionary policies -- to accept the concept of the full employment budget. At the same time, I ask the Congress to cooperate in resisting expenditures that go beyond the limits of the full employment budget. For as we wage a campaign to bring about a widely shared prosperity, we must not re-ignite the fires of inflation and SO undermine that prosperity. With the stimulus and the discipline of a full employment budget; with the commitment of the independent Federal Reserve System to provide fully for the monetary needs of a growing economy; and with a much greater effort by labor and management to make their wage and price decisions in the light of the national interest and their own long-run best interests -- then for the worker, the farmer, the consumer, and for Americans everywhere we shall gain the goal of a new prosperity: more jobs, more income and more profits, without inflation and without war. This is a great goal, and one that we can achieve together. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft grouth wind 1/22/71 - 6 The third great goal is to continue the effort sp dramatically begun this past year: to restore and enhance our natural environ- ment. Building on the foundation laid in the 37-point program I sub- mitted to Congress last year, I will propose a strong new set of initiatives to clean up our air and water, to combat noise, and to preserve and restore our surroundings. I will progrograms to make better use of our land, and to encourage a balanced national growththa of both urban and rural Ame And not only to meet today's needs but to anticipate those of tomorrow, I will put forward the most extensive program ever proposed by a President to expand the nation's parks, park recrea- tion areas and open spaces in a way that truly brings parks to the people. For only if we leave a legacy of parks will the next generation have parks to enjoy. As a fourth great goal, I will offer a far-reaching set of pro- posals for improving America's health care and making it available more fairly to more people. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 7 - I will propose: -- A program to insure that no American family will be prevented from obtaining basic medical care by inability to pay. -- A major increase in and redirection of aid to medical schools, to greatly increase the number of doctors and other health personnel. - - New incentives to encourage better preventive medi- Sub cine, greater use of nurses and medical assistants and a fairer distribution of medical services -- SO that care is voul available where sick people are rather than being concen- trated primarily where rich people are. I will also ask appropriation of an extra $100 million to launch an intensive campaign to find a cure for cancer, and I will ask later for whatever Can effectively be used, what additional funds may become necessary. The time has come when the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread dis- ease. Surely these can be cured, and they must be cured. Let us make a total national commitment to do so. achieve This goal. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum INSERT A - Page 7 3, -- Incentives to improve the delivery of health services, to get more medical care resources into those areas that have not been adequately served, to make greater use of medical assistants and to slow the alarming rise in the costs of medical care. 4. - - New programs to encourage better preventive medicine, by attacking the causes of disease and injury, and by providing incentives to doctors to keep people well rather than just to treat them when they are sick. Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 8 - America has long been the wealthiest nation in the world. Now it is time we became the healthiest nation in the world. The fifth great goal is to strengthen and renew our State and local governments. As we approach our 200th anniversary in 1976, we remember that this nation launched itself as a loose confederation of separate States, without a workable central government. At that time, the mark of its leaders' vision was that they quickly saw the need to balance the separate powers of the States with a government of central powers. And SO they gave us a Constitution of balanced powers, of unity with diversity -- and so clear was their vision that it survives as the oldest written Constitution still in force in the world today. For almost two centuries since -- and dramatically in the 1930s -- at those great turning -points when the question has been between the States and the Federal Government, it has been resolved in favor of a stronger central government. During this time the nation grew and prospered. But one thing history tells us is that no great movement goes in the same direction forever. Nations change, they adapt, or they slowly die. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum I And give X CONFIDENTIAL &&A show SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 9 - The time has come to reverse the flow of power and resources from the States and communities to Washington, and start power and resources flowing back from Washington to the Statesand communities and most important, to the people, all across America. A The time has come for a new partnership between the Federal haw Government and the States and localities in which wes give responsibility To achieve This Soal,) to The states and localitize and I propose to the Congress tonight that we enact a plan of revenue sharing historic in scope and bold in concept. also The resource to mut That All across America today, States and cities are confronted with responsi- a financial crisis. Some already have been cutting back on essential bately. services - - for example, just recently San Diego and Cleveland cut back on trash collections; Los Angeles had to reduce its force of water and power workers. Most are caught between the prospects of bank- ruptcy on the one hand and adding to an already crushing tax burden on the other. As one indication of the rising costs of local government, I dis- covered the other day that my home town of Whittier, California - with a population of only 67,000 -- has a budget for 1971 bigger than the entire Federal budget in 1791. Now the time has come to take a new direction, and once again to introduce a new and more creative balance in our approach to government. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 10 - So let us put the money where the needs are. And let us put the power to spend it where the people are. I propose that the Congress make a $16 billion investment in renewing State and local government with $5 billion of this in new and unrestricted funds, to be used as the States and localities see fit, and with the other $11 billion provided by converting one - third allocating $1billion of funds new of the money going to the present narrow-purpose aid programs into Federal revenue sharing funds for six broad purposes urban development, rural development, education, transportation, man- job power training and lawenforcement but with the States and localities making their own local decisions on how it should be spent. #A The revenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress will all will include the safeguards against discrimination that accompany all be embodied in a group of bills defenening these general special revenue other Federal funds allocated to the States, Neither the President sharing proposals nor the Congress nor the conscience of the nation can permit money which comes from all the people to be used in a way which discrimi- nates against some of the people. The Federal Government will still have a large and vital role to play in achieving our national purposes. Established functions CONFIDENTIAL +24 197 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum Page 10 Insert A. For the next fiscal year, this would increase total Federal aid to the States and localities by more than twenty-five percent over the present level. Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 11 - that are clearly and essentially Federal in nature will still be per- formed by the Federal Government. New functions that need to be sponsored or performed by the Federal Government -- - such as those I have urged tonight in welfare and health - - will be added to the Federal agenda. Whenever it makes the best sense for us to act as a whole nation, the Federal Government will lead the way. But where State or local governments can better do what needs to be done, let us see that they have the resources to do it. Under this plan, the Federal Government will provide the States and localities with more money and less interference -- and by cutting down the interference the same amount of money will go a lot further. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum net N CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 12 - and that 7th A payment be ther n Let us share our resources: -- to rescue the States and localities from the brink of finan- cial crisis -- and to give homeowners and wage earners a chance to escape from ever-higher property taxes and sales taxes. Let us share our resources for two other reasons as well. The first of these reasons has to do with government itself, and the second with the individual. Let's face it. Most Americans today are simply fed up with government at all levels. Pags The fact is that we have made the Federal Government SO strong it grows muscle-bound and the States and localities so weak they approach impotence. If we put more power in more places, we can make government more creative in more places. For that way we multiply the number of people with the ability to make things happen -- and we can open the way to a new burst of creative energy throughout America. This 0~2~ between pupur CONFIDENTIAL They will not / should not- her to he contribute and gap to be toterate twen promise The and preformance. Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 13 - The final reason I urge this historic shift is much more per- sonál, for each and every one of us. Millions of frustrated young Americans today are crying out - - asking not what will government do for me, but what can I do, how can I contribute, how can I matter? Let us answer them. Let us say we hear you and we will give you a chance. We are going to give you a new chance to have more to say about the decisions that affect your future -- to participate in government -- because we are going to provide more centers of power where what you do can make a difference that you can see and feel in your own life and the life of your whole community. The further away government is from people, the stronger government becomes and the weaker people become. And a nation with a strong government and a weak people is an empty shell. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 14 - I reject the patronizing idea that government in Washington, D. C. is inevitably more wise, more honest and more efficient than govern- ment at the local or State level. / The honesty and efficiency of govern- ment depends on people. Government at all levels has good people and bad people. And the way to get more good people into governme nt is to give them more freedom to do good things. The idea that a bureaucratic elite in Washington knows best what is best for people everywhere and that you cannot trust local govern- ment is really a contention that you cannot trust people to govern them- selves. This notion is completely foreign to the American experience. Local government is the government closest to the people and most responsive to the individual person; it is people's government in a far more intimate way than the government in Washington can ever be. / People came to America because they wanted to determine their own future rather than to live in a country where others determined their future for them. What this change means is that once again we are placing our trust in people. I have faith in people. I trust the judgment of people. Let us give the people a chance, a bigger voice in deciding for themselves those questions that so greatly affect their lives. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 15 - The sixth great goal is a complete reform of the Federal Gov- ernment itself. Based on a long and intensive study with the aid of the best ad- vice obtainable, I have concluded that a sweeping reorganization of the Executive Branch is needed if the government is to keep up with the with times and the needs of the people. I propose that we reduce the present twelve Cabinet Departments to eight. I propose that the Departments of State, Treasury, Defense and Justice remain, but that all the other departments be consolidated into four: Human Resources, Community Development, Natural Resources, and Economic Development. Let us look at what these would be: -- First, a department dealing with the concerns of people -- as individuals, as members of a family -- a department focused on human needs. -- Second, a department concerned with the community -- rural communities and urban -- and with all that it takes to make a commu- nity function as a community. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 17 - The time has come to match our structure to our purposes - to look with a fresh eye, and to organize the government by conscious, comprehensive design to meet the new needs of a new era. One hundred years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood on a battlefield and spoke of a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Too often since then, we have become a nation of the Govern- ment, by the Government, and for the Government. By enacting these reforms, we can renew that principle that Lincoln stated SO simply and so well. By giving everyone's voice a chance to be heard, we will have government that truly is of the people. By creating more centers of meaningful power, more places where decisions that really count can be made, by giving more people a chance to do something, we can have government that truly is by the completely Atc at Ran Aetting may people. And by replacing our obsolete Federal machi rv with a Min Structure modern, functional design, we in Washington will at last be able to provide government that truly is for the people. a completely moderns functional setting up CONFIDENTIAL sustem 1 government at the national level, Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 18 - I realize that what I am asking is that not only the Executive Branch in Washington but even this Congress will have to change by giving up some of its power. Change is hard. But without change there can be no progress. And for each of us the question must be, not "Will change cause me inconvenience? 11 but "Will change bring the country progress? TT Giving up power is hard. But I would urge all of you, as leaders of this country, to remember that the truly revered leaders in world history are those who gave power to people, not those who took it away. As we consider these reforms we will be acting, not for the next two years or the next ten years, but for the next hundred years. So let us approach these six great goals with a sense, not only of this moment in history, but also of history itself. Let us act with the willingness to work together and the vision and the boldness and the courage of those great Americans who met in Philadelphia almost 190 years ago to create a Constitution. Let us leave a heritage as they did - - not just for our children but for millions yet unborn - of a nation where every American will have a chance not only to live in peace and to enjoy prosperity and opportunity, but to participate in a system of government where he knows not only his CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 19 - votes but his ideas count a system of government which will provide the means for America to reach heights of achievement undreamed of before. Those men who met in Philadelphia left a great heritage because they had a vision -- not only of what the nation was, but of what it could become. As I think of that vision, I recall that America was founded as the land of the open door -- as a haven for the oppressed, a land of opportunity, a place of refuge and of hope. When the first settlers opened the door of America three and a half centuries ago, they came to escape persecution and to find opportunity - and they left wide the door of welcome for others to follow. When the thirteen colonies declared their independence almost two centuries ago, they opened the door to a new vision of liberty and of human fulfillment -- not just for an elite, but for all. To the generations that followed, America's was the open door that beckoned millions from the old world to the new in search of a better life, a freer life, a fuller life, in which by their own decisions they could shape their own destinies. They came to find opportunity for themselves and to ensure it for their children. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 20 - For the black American, the Indian, the Mexican-American, and for those others in our land who have not had an equal chance, the nation at last has begun to confront the need to press open the door of full and equal opportunity, and of human dignity. For all Americans, with these changes I have proposed tonight we can open the door to a new era of opportunity. We can open the door to full and effective participation in the decisions that affect their lives. We can open the door to a new partnership among governments at all levels, and between those governments and the people themselves. And by so doing, we can open wide the doors of human fulfillment for millions of people here in America. In the next few weeks I will spell out in greater detail the way I propose that we achieve these six great goals. I ask this Congress to be responsive. If it is, then the 92nd Congress, at the end of its term, will be able to look back on a record more splendid than any in our history. This can be the Congress that helped us end the longest war in the nation's history, and end it in a way that will give us at last a genuine chance for a full generation of peace. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - -- 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 21 - This can be the Congress that helped achieve an expanding economy, with full employment and without inflation - - and without the deadly stimulus of war. This can be the Congress that reformed a welfare system that has robbed recipients of their dignity while it robbed States and cities of their resources. This can be the Congress that pressed forward the rescue of our environment, and established for the next generation an enduring legacy of parks for the people. This can be the Congress that launched a new era in American medicine, in which the quality of medical care was enhanced while the costs were made less burdensome. But above all, what this Congress can be remembered for is opening the way to a new American Revolution -- a peaceful revolution in which power was turned back to the people -- in which government at all levels was refreshed and renewed, and made truly responsive. This can be a revolution as profound, as far-reaching, as exciting, as that first revolution almost 200 years ago -- and it can mean that just five young 1 years from now America will enter its third century as a 1 nation 4 new in spirit, with all the vigor and freshness with which it began its first century. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum My colleagues in the Congress -- the'se are great goals, and they can make the sessions of this Congress a great moment for America. So let. us pledge together to go forward together -- by achieving these goals to give America the foundation today for a its greatness tomorrow and in all the years to come -- and in so doing to make this the greatest Congress in the history of this great and good nation. Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum 4177 THE PRESIDENT'S READING COPY STATE OF THE UNION January 22, 1971 Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our distinguished guests and my fellow Americans: This 92nd Congress has a chance to be recorded as the greatest Congress in America's history. 1. In these troubled years just past, America has been going through a long nightmare of war and division, of crime and inflation. (1) Even more deeply, we have gone through a long, dark night of the American spirit. 1. But now that night is ending. 2. Now we must let our spirits soar again. 3. Now we are ready for the lift of a driving dream. 94 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 2 - 2. The people of this nation are eager to get on with the quest for new greatness. (1) They see challenges, and they are prepared to meet those challenges. (2) It is for us here to open the doors that will set free again the real greatness of this nation -- the genius of the American people. 1. How shall we meet this challenge? 2. How can we truly open the doors, and set free the full genius of our people? (1) The way in which the 92nd Congress answers these questions will determine its place in history. 1. More importantly, it can determine this nation's place in history as we enter the third century of our independence. 109 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 3 - Tonight, I shall present to the Congress six great goals. 1. I shall ask not simply for more new programs in the old framework, but to change the framework itself -- to reform the entire structure of American government so we can make it again fully responsive to the needs and the wishes of the American people. 2. If we act boldly -- if we seize this moment and achieve these goals -- we can close the gap between promise and performance in American government, and bring together the resources of the nation and the spirit of the people. 3. In discussing these great goals, I am dealing tonight only with matters on the domestic side of the nation's agenda. (1) I shall make a separate report to the Congress and the nation next month on developments in our foreign policy. / Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 4 - The first of these six great goals is already before the Congress. 1. I urge that the unfinished business of the 91st Congress be made the first priority of the 92nd. 2. Over the next two weeks, I will call upon Congress to take action on more than 35 pieces of proposed legislation on which action was not completed last year. (1) The most important is welfare reform. 1. The present welfare system has become a monstrous, consuming outrage - - an outrage against the community, against the taxpayer, and particularly against the children it is supposed to help. / 2. We may honestly disagree on what to do about it. (1) But we can all agree that we must meet the challenge not by pouring more money into the old system, but by abolishing it and adopting a new one. 132 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 5 - 3. Let us place a floor under the income of every family with children in America -- and without those demeaning, soul-stifling affronts to human dignity that so blight the lives of welfare children today. 4. But let us also establish an effective work incentive and an effective work requirement. (1) Let us provide the means by which more can help themselves. (2) Let us generously help those who are not able to help themselves. (3) But let us stop helping those who are able to help themselves but refuse to do so. 8.8 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 6 - The second great goal is to achieve what Americans have not enjoyed since 1957 -- full prosperity in peacetime. 1. The tide of inflation has turned. 2. The rise in the cost of living, which had been gathering dangerous momentum in the late Sixties, was reduced last year. 3. Inflation will be further reduced this year. 4. But as we have moved from runaway inflation toward reasonable price stability and at the same time have been moving from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy, we have paid a price in increased unemployment. 5. We should take no comfort from the fact that the level of unemployment in this transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy is lower than in any peacetime year of the 1960's. 121 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 7 - (1) This is not good enough for the man who is unemployed in the Seventies. (2) We must do better for workers in peacetime -- and we will do better. 1. To achieve this, I will submit an expansionary budget this year -- one that will help stimulate the economy and thereby open up new job opportunities for millions of Americans. 2. It will be a full employment budget, a budget designed to be in balance if the economy were operating at its peak potential. (1) By spending as if we were at full employment, we will help to bring about full employment. 3. I ask the Congress to accept these expansionary policies -- to accept the concept of the full employment budget. 4. At the same time, I ask the Congress to cooperate in resisting expenditures that go beyond the limits of the full employment budget. 137 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 8 - (1) For as we wage a campaign to bring about a widely shared prosperity, we must not re-ignite the fires of inflation and so undermine that prosperity. 6. With the stimulus and the discipline of a full employment budget; with the commitment of the independent Federal Reserve System to provide fully for the monetary needs of a growing economy; and with a much greater effort by labor and management to make their wage and price decisions in the light of the national interest and their own long-run best interests -- then for the worker, the farmer, the consumer, and for Americans everywhere we shall gain the goal of a new prosperity: (1) More jobs, more income and more profits, without inflation and without war. 1. This is a great goal, and one that we can achieve together. 134 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 9 - The third great goal is to continue the effort SO dramatically begun this past year: 1. To restore and enhance our natural environment. (1) Building on the foundation laid in the 37-point program I submitted to Congress last year, I will propose a strong new set of initiatives to clean up our air and water, to combat noise, and to preserve and restore our surroundings. (2) I will propose programs to make better use of our land, and to encourage a balanced national growth -- growth that will revitalize our rural heartland and enhance the quality of life throughout America 1. And not only to meet today's needs but to anticipate those of tomorrow, I will put forward the most extensive program ever proposed by a President to expand the nation's parks, recreation areas and open spaces in a way that truly brings parks to the people. (1) For only if we leave a legacy of parks will the next generation have parks 158 to enjoy. Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 10 - As a fourth great goal, I will offer a far-reaching set of proposals for improving America's health care and making it available more fairly to more people. I will propose: 1. A program to insure that no American family will be prevented from obtaining basic medical care by inability to pay. 2. A major increase in and redirection of aid to medical schools, to greatly increase the number of doctors and other health personnel. 3. Incentives to improve the delivery of health services, to get more medical care resources into those areas that have not been adequately served, to make greater use of medical assistants and to slow the alarming rise in the costs of medical care. 4. New programs to encourage better preventive medicine, by attacking the causes of disease and injury, and by providing incentives to doctors to keep people well rather than just to treat them when they are sick. 149 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 11 - I will also ask appropriation of an extra $100 million to launch an intensive campaign to find a cure for cancer, and I will ask later for whatever additional funds can effectively be used. 1. The time has come when the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread disease. (1) Surely these can be cured, and they must be cured. 1. Let us make a total national commitment to achieve this goal. 2. America has long been the wealthiest nation in the world. (1) Now it is time we became the healthiest nation in the world. The fifth great goal is to strengthen and renew our State and local governments. 1. As we approach our 200th anniversary in 1976, we remember that this nation launched itself as a loose confederation of separate States, without a workable central government. 147 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 12 - 2. At that time, the mark of its leaders' vision was that they quickly saw the need to balance the separate powers of the States with a government of central powers. (1) And so they gave us a Constitution of balanced powers, of unity with diversity -- and so clear was their vision \ that it survives as the oldest written Constitution still in force in the world today. 3. For almost two centuries since -- and dramatically in the 1930's -- at those great turning-points when the question has been between the States and the Federal Government, it has been resolved in favor of a stronger central government. (1) During this time the nation grew and prospered. (2) But one thing history tells us is that no great movement goes in the same direction forever. 1. Nations change, they adapt, or they slowly die. 136 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 13 - 4. The time has come to reverse the flow of power and resources from the States and communities to Washington, and start power and resources flowing back from Washington to the States and communities and more important, to the people, all across America. 5. The time has come for a new partnership between the Federal Government and the States and localities -- a partnership in which we entrust the States and localities with a larger share of the nation's responsibilities, and in which we share our Federal revenues with them so they can meet those responsibilities. (1) To achieve this goal, I propose to the Congress tonight that we enact a plan of revenue sharing historic in scope and bold in concept. 1. All across America today, States and cities are confronted with financial crisis. (1) Some already have been cutting back on essential services -- for example, just recently San Diego and Cleveland cut back on trash collections; 152 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 14 - (2) Most are caught between the prospects of bankruptcy on the one hand and adding to an already crushing tax burden on the other. 2. As one indication of the rising costs of local government, I discovered the other day that my home town of Whittier, California -- with a population of only 67,000 -- has a budget for 1971 bigger than the entire Federal budget in 1791. 6. Now the time has come to take a new direction, and once again to introduce a new and more creative balance in our approach to government. (1) So let us put the money where the needs are. / (2) And let us put the power to spend it where the people are. 1. I propose that the Congress make a $16 billion investment in renewing State and local government -- (1) with $5 billion of this in new and unrestricted funds, to be used as the States and localities see fit; 149 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 15 - (2) And with the other $11 billion provided by allocating $1 billion of new funds and converting one-third of the money going to the present narrow-purpose aid programs into Federal revenue sharing funds for six broad purposes -- 1. Urban development, 2. Rural development, 3. Education, 4. Transportation, 5. Job Training, and 6. Law enforcement. (3) But with the States and localities making their own decisions on how it should be spent. (4) For the next fiscal year, this would increase total Federal aid to the States and localities more than 25 percent over the present level. 7. The revenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress will include the safeguards against discrimination that accompany all other Federal funds allocated to the States. 113 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 16 - (1) Neither the President nor the Congress nor the conscience of the nation can permit money which comes from all the people to be used in a way which discriminates against some of the people. 8. The Federal Government will still have a large and vital role to play in achieving our national purposes. (1) Established functions that are clearly and essentially Federal in nature will still be performed by the Federal Government. (2) New functions that need to be sponsored or performed by the Federal Government -- such as those I have urged tonight in welfare and health -- will be added to the Federal / agenda. (3) Whenever it makes the best sense for us to act as a whole nation, the Federal Government will lead the way. 1. But where State or local governments can better do what needs to be done, let us see that they have the resources to do it. 147 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 17 - (4) Under this plan, the Federal Government will provide the States and localities with more money and less interference -- and by cutting down the interference the same amount of money will go a lot further. 9. Let us share our resources: (1) To rescue the States and localities from the brink of financial / crisis. (2) And to give homeowners and wage earners a chance to escape from ever-higher property taxes and sales taxes. 10. Let us share our resources for two other reasons as well. (1) The first of these reasons has to do with government itself, and the second with the individual. 1. Let's face it. Most Americans today are simply fed up with government at all levels. 2. They will not -- and should not -- continue to tolerate the gap between promise and performance. 128 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 18 - 2. The fact is that we have made the Federal Government so strong it grows muscle-bound and the States and localities so weak they approach impotence. (1) If we put more power in more places, we can make government more creative in more places. 1. For that way we multiply the number of people with the ability to make things happen -- - and we can open the way to a new burst of creative energy throughout America. 11. The final reason I urge this historic shift is much more personal, for each and every one of us. (1) As everything seems to have grown bigger, and more complex; as the forces that shape our lives seem to have grown more distant and more impersonal, a great feeling of frustration has crept across the land. 1. Whether it is the working man who feels neglected, the black man who feels oppressed or the mother concerned about her children, there has been a growing feeling that "things are in the saddle, and ride mankind." (2) Millions of frustrated young Americans today are crying out -- asking not what will government do for me, but what can I do, how can I contribute, how can I matter ? Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 19 - (3) Let us answer them. 1. Let us say to them and to all Americans: (1) "We hear you and we will give you a chance. (2) "We are going to give you a new chance to have more to say about the decisions that affect your future -- to participate in government - because we are going to provide \ more centers of power where what you do can make a difference that you can see and feel in your own life and the life of your whole community." 12. The further away government is from people, the stronger government becomes and the weaker people become. (1) And a nation with a strong government and a weak people is an empty shell. (2) I reject the patronizing idea that government in Washington, D. C., is inevitably more wise, more honest and more efficient than government at the local or State level. 137 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 20 - 1. The honesty and efficiency of government depends on people. 2. Government at all levels has good people and bad people. 3. And the way to get more good people into government is to give them more opportunity to do good things. (3) The idea that a bureaucratic elite in Washington knows best what is best for people everywhere and 65 that you cannot trust local government is really a contention that you cannot trust people to govern themselves. 1. This notion is completely foreign to the American experience. (1) Local government is the government closest to the people and most responsive to the individual person; (2) It is people's government in a far more intimate way than the government in Washington can ever be. 117 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 21 - 13. People came to America because they wanted to determine their own future rather than to live in a country where others determined their future for them. (1) What this change means is that once again we are placing our trust in people. 1. I have faith in people. 2. I trust the judgment of people. 3. Let us give the people a chance, a bigger voice in deciding for themselves those questions that so greatly affect their lives. 74 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 22 - The sixth great goal is a complete reform of the Federal Government itself. 1. Based on a long and intensive study with the aid of the best advice obtainable, I have concluded that a sweeping reorganization of the Executive Branch is needed if the government is to keep up with the times and with the needs of the people. (1) I propose that we reduce the present twelve Cabinet Departments to eight. (2) I propose that the Departments of State, Treasury, Defense and Justice remain, but that all the other departments be consolidated into four: 1. Human Resources, 2. Community Development, 3. Natural Resources, and 4. Economic Development. 1 0 / Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 23 - 2. Let us look at what these would be: (1) First, a department dealing with the concerns of people -- as individuals, as members of a family -- a department focused on human needs. (2) Second, a department concerned with the community -- rural communities and urban -- and with all that it takes to make a community function as a community. (3) Third, a department concerned with our physical environment, and with the preservation and balanced use of those great natural resources on which our nation depends. (4) And fourth, a department concerned with our prosperity -- with our jobs, our businesses, and those many activities that keep our economy running smoothly and well. 3. Under this plan, rather than dividing up our departments by narrow subjects, we would organize them around the great purposes of government. 127 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 24 - (1) Rather than scattering responsibility by adding new levels of bureaucracy, we would focus and concentrate the responsibility for getting problems solved. (2) With these four departments, when we have a problem we will know where to go -- and the department will have the authority and the resources to do something about it. 4. Over the years we have added departments and created agencies, each to serve a new constituency or to handle a particular task -- and these have grown and multiplied in what has become a hopeless confusion of form and function. 5. The time has come to match our structure to our purposes -- to look with a fresh eye, and to organize the government by conscious, comprehensive design to meet the new needs of a new era. (1) One hundred years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood on a battlefield and spoke of a government of the people, by the people and for the people. ,40 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 25 - 1. Too often since then, we have become a nation of the Government, by the Government, and for the Government. (2) By enacting these reforms, we can renew that principle that Lincoln stated so simply and so well. (3) By giving everyone's voice a chance to be heard, we will have government that truly is of the people. (4) By creating more centers of meaningful power, more places where decisions that really count can be made, by giving more people a chance to do something, we can have government that truly is by the people. (5) And by setting up a completely modern, functional / system of government at the national level, we in Washington will at last be able to provide government that truly is for the people. 123 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 26 - I realize that what I am asking is that not only the Executive Branch in Washington but even this Congress will have to change by giving up some of its power. 1. Change is hard. (1) But without change there can be no progress. (2) And for each of us the question must be, not "Will change cause me inconvenience?" but "Will change bring the country progress? 2. Giving up power is hard. (1) But I would urge all of you, as leaders of this country, to remember that the truly revered leaders in world history are those who gave power to people, not those who took it away. / 3. As we consider these reforms we will be acting, not for the next two years or the next ten years, but for the next hundred years. (1) So let us. approach these six great goals with a sense, not only of this moment in history, but also of history itself. 144 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 27 - 1. Let us act with the willingness to work together and the vision and the boldness and the courage of those great Americans who met in Philadelphia almost 190 years ago to create a Constitution. 2. Let us leave a heritage as they did -- not just for our children but for millions yet unborn -- of a nation where every American will have a chance not only to live in peace and to enjoy prosperity and opportunity, but to participate in a system of government where he knows not only his votes but his ideas count -- a system of government which will provide the means for America to reach heights of achievement undreamed of before. Those men who met in Philadelphia left a great heritage because they had a vision -- not only of what the nation was, but of what it could become. 1. As I think of that vision, I recall that America was founded as the land of the open door -- as a haven for the oppressed, a land of opportunity, a place of refuge and of hope. 176 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 28 - (1) When the first settlers opened the door of America three and a half centuries ago, they came to escape persecution and to find opportunity -- and they left WIDE the door of welcome for others to follow. (2) When the thirteen colonies declared their independence almost two centuries ago, they opened the door to a new vision of liberty and of human fulfillment -- not just for an elite, but for all. (3) To the generations that followed, America's was the open door that beckoned millions from the old world to the new in search of a better life, a freer / life, a fuller life, in which by their own decisions they could shape their own destinies. 1. For the black American, the Indian, the Mexican-American, and for those others in our land who have not had an equal chance, the nation at last has begun to confront the need to press open the door of full and equal opportunity, and of human dignity. 159 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 29 - 2. For all Americans, with these changes I have proposed tonight we can open the door to a new era of opportunity. (1) We can open the door to full and effective participation in the decisions that affect their lives. (2) We can open the door to a new partnership among governments at all levels, and between those governments and the people themselves. 3. And by so doing, we can open wide the doors of human fulfillment for millions of people here in America. In the next few weeks, I will spell out in greater detail the way I propose that we achieve these six great goals. 1. I ask this Congress to be responsive. (1) If it is, then the 92nd Congress, at the end of its term, will be able to look back on a record more splendid than any in our history. 139 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 30 - 1. This can be the Congress that helped us end the longest war in the nation's history, and end it in a way that will give us at last a genuine chance for a full generation of peace. 2. This can be the Congress that helped achieve an expanding economy, with full employment and without inflation -- and without the deadly stimulus of war. 3. This can be the Congress that reformed a welfare system that has robbed recipients of their dignity while it robbed States and cities of their resources. 87 4. This can be the Congress that pressed forward / the rescue of our environment, and established for the next generation an enduring legacy of parks for the people. 5. This can be the Congress that launched a new era in American medicine, in which the quality of medical care was enhanced while the costs were made less burdensome. 143 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 31 - 6. But above all, what this Congress can be remembered for is opening the way to a new American Revolution -- (1) a peaceful revolution in which power was turned back to the people -- (2) in which government at all levels was refreshed and renewed, and made truly responsive. 7. This can be a revolution as profound, as far-reaching, as exciting, as that first revolution almost 200 years ago -- and it can mean that just five years from now America will enter its third century as a young nation, new in spirit, with all the vigor and freshness with which it began its first century. 10 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 32 - My colleagues in the Congress -- these are great goals, and they can make the sessions of this Congress a great moment for America. 1. So let us pledge together to go forward together - - by achieving these goals to give America the foundation today for a new greatness tomorrow and in all the years to come -- and in so doing to make this the greatest Congress in the history of this great and good nation. ########### 73 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum DETERMINED TO BE AN ADMINISTRATIVE MARKING E.O. 12065, Section 6-102 By MH CONFIDENTIAL NARS, Date 9/2/81 STATE OF THE UNION FROM: RAY PRICE For the insert on page 13, this might work pretty well. (I've tried graphic images, but with things in the saddle we come up against the mixed-metaphor problem.) As everything seems to have grown bigger, and more complex; as the forces that shape our lives seem to im have grown more distant and more personal, a great feeling of frustration has crept across the land. Whether it is the working man who feels neglected, the black man who feels oppressed or the mother concerned about her children, there has been a growing feeling that "things are in the saddle, and ride mankind. " CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 18 - 2. The fact is that we have made the Federal Government so strong it grows muscle-bound and the States and localities so weak they approach impotence. (1) If we put more power in more places, we can make government more creative in more places. 1. For that way we multiply the number of people with the ability to make things happen -- and we can open the way to a new burst of creative energy throughout America. 11. The final reason I urge this historic shift is much more personal, for each and every one of us. B (1) Millions of frustrated young Americans today are crying out -- asking not what will government do for me, but what can I do, how can I contribute, how can I matter? - 13 - 4. The time has come to reverse the flow of power and resources from the States and communities to Washington, and start power and resources flowing back from Washington to the States and communities more and most important, to the people, all across America. 5. The time has come for a new partnership between the Federal Government and the States and localities in A which we give responsibility to the States and localities and also the resources to meet that responsibility. (1) To achieve this goal, I propose to the Congress tonight that we enact a plan of revenue sharing historic in scope and bold in concept. 1. All across America today, States and cities are confronted with / a financial crisis. (1) Some already have been cutting back on essential services -- for example, just recently San Diego and Cleveland cut back on trash collections; Los Angeles had to reduce its force of water and power workers. Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum , 1 CONFIDENTIAL STATE OF THE UNION FROM: RAY PRICE A possible alternative formulation for the line on page 9 of the 11th draft: The time has come for a new partnership between the Federal Government and the States and localities -- a partnership in which we entrust the States and localities with a larger share of the nation's responsibilities, and in which we share Federal our revenues with them so they can meet those " responsibilities. CONFIDENTIAL DETERMINED TO BE AN ADMINISTRATIVE MARKING E.O. 12065, Section 6-102 By MH NARS, Date 9/2/81 Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 19 - 11 (2) Let us answer them. to and to all american: 1. Let us say/we hear you and we will give you a chance. 2. We are going to give you a new chance to have more to say about the decisions that affect your future -- to participate in government -- - because we are going to provide more centers of power where what you do can make a difference that you can see and feel in your own life and the life of your whole community. 11 12. The further away government is from people, the stronger government becomes and the weaker people become. (1) And a nation with a strong government and a weak people is an empty shell. (2) I reject the patronizing idea that government in Washington, D. C., is inevitably more wise, more honest and more efficient than government at the local or State level. Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum BMW DETERMINED TO BE AN CONFIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATIVE MARKING E.O. 12065, Section 6-102 By MH NARS, Date 9/2/81 STATE OF THE UNION 11th Draft January 22, 1971 Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our distinguished guests and my fellow Americans: This 92nd Congress has a chance to be recorded as the greatest Congress in America's history. In these troubled years just past, America has been going through a long nightmare of war and division, of crime and infla- tion. Even more deeply, we have gone through a long, dark night of the American spirit. But now that night is ending. Now we must let our spirits soar again. Now we are ready for the lift of a driving dream. The people of this nation are eager to get on with the quest for new greatness. They see challenges, and they are prepared to meet those challenges. It is for us here to open the doors that will set free again the real greatness of this nation -- the genius of the American people. How shall we meet this challenge ? How can we truly open the doors, and set free the full genius of our people? CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 2 - The way in which the 92nd Congress answers these questions will determine its place in history. More importantly, it can deter- mine this nation's place in history as we enter the third century of our independence. Tonight, I shall present to the Congress six great goals. I shall ask not simply for more new programs in the old framework, but to change the framework itself -- - - to reform the entire structure of American government so we can make it again fully responsive to the needs and the wishes of the American people. If we act boldly -- if we seize this moment and achieve these goals, we can close the gap between promise and performance in American government, and bring together the resources of the nation and the spirit of the people. In discussing these great goals, I am dealing tonight only with matters on the domestic side of the nation's agenda. I shall make a separate report to the Congress and the nation next month on developments in our foreign policy. The first of these six great goals is already before the Con- gress. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 3 - I urge that the unfinished business of the 91st Congress be made the first priority of the 92nd. Congress to take action on Over the next two weeks, I will call upon/ more than 35 pieces of proposed legislation on which action was not completed last year. The most important is welfare reform. The present welfare system has become a monstrous, consuming outrage -- an outrage against the community, against the taxpayer, and particularly against the children it is supposed to help. We may honestly disagree on what to do about it. But we can all agree that we must meet the challenge not by pouring more money into the old system, but by abolishing it and adopting a new one. Let us place a floor under the income of every family with children in America -- and without those demeaning, soul-stifling affronts to human dignity that SO blight the lives of welfare children today. But let us also establish an effective work incentive and an effective work requirement. Let us provide the means by which more can help them- selves. Let us generously help those who are not able to help themselves. But let us stop helping those who are able to help themselves but refuse to do so. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU are 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 4 - The second great goal is to achieve what Americans have not enjoyed since 1957 -- full prosperity in peacetime. The tide of inflation has turned. The rise in the cost of living, which had been gathering dangerous momentum in the late Sixties, was reduced last year. Inflation will be further reduced this year. But as we have made the move from runaway inflation toward reasonable price stability and as at the same time we have made the move from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy, we have paid a price in unemployment. One million, nine hundred thousand jobs came to an end in our armed forces and defense plants in this past two years. We should take no comfort from the fact that the level of unem- ployment in this transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy is lower than in any peacetime year of the 1960s. This is not good enough for the man who is unemployed in the Seventies. We must do better for workers in peacetime and we will do better. To achieve this, I will submit an expansionary budget this year one that will help stimulate the economy and thereby open up new job opportunities for millions of Americans. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 5 - It will be a full employment budget, a budget designed to be in balance if the economy were operating at its peak potential. By spending as if we were at full employment, we will help to bring about full employment. I ask the Congress to accept these expansionary policies -- to accept the concept of the full employment budget. At the same time, I ask the Congress to cooperate in resisting expenditures that go beyond the limits of the full employment budget. For as we wage a campaign to bring about a widely shared prosperity, we must not re-ignite the fires of inflation and SO undermine that prosperity. With the stimulus and the discipline of a full employment budget; with the commitment of the independent Federal Reserve System to provide fully for the monetary needs of a growing economy; and with a much greater effort by labor and management to make their wage and price decisions in the light of the national interest and their own long-run best interests -- then for the worker, the farmer, the consumer, and for Americans everywhere we shall gain the goal of a new prosperity: more jobs, more income and more profits, without inflation and without war. This is a great goal, and one that we can achieve together. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 6 - The third great goal is to continue the effort SO dramatically begun this past year: to restore and enhance our natural environ- ment. Building on the foundation laid in the 37-point program I sub- mitted to Congress last year, I will propose a strong new set of initiatives to clean up our air and water, to combat noise, and to preserve and restore our surroundings. I will have programs to make better use of our land, and to encourage a balanced national growth that will enhance the quality of life in both urban and rural America. And not only to meet today's needs but to anticipate those of tomorrow, I will put forward the most extensive program ever proposed by a President to expand the nation's parks, park recrea- tion areas and open spaces in a way that truly brings parks to the people. For only if we leave a legacy of parks will the next generation have parks to enjoy. As a fourth great goal, I will offer a far-reaching set of pro- posals for improving America's health care and making it available more fairly to more people. GONF IDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum GONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 7 - I will propose: -- A program to insure that no American family will be prevented from obtaining basic medical care by inability to pay. -- A major increase in and redirection of aid to medical schools, to greatly increase the number of doctors and other health personnel. - - New incentives to encourage better preventive medi- cine, greater use of nurses and medical assistants and a fairer distribution of medical services -- SO that care is available where sick people are rather than being concen- trated primarily where rich people are. I will also ask appropriation of an extra $100 million to launch an intensive campaign to find a cure for cancer, and I will ask later for what additional funds may become necessary. The time has come when the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread dis- - ease. Surely these can be cured, and they must be cured. Let us make a total national commitment to do so. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 8 - America has long been the wealthiest nation in the world. Now it is time we became the healthiest nation in the world. The fifth great goal is to strengthen and renew our State and local governments. As we approach our 200th anniversary in 1976, we remember that this nation launched itself as a loose confederation of separate States, without a workable central government. At that time, the mark of its leaders' vision was that they quickly saw the need to balance the separate powers of the States with a government of central powers. And so they gave us a Constitution of balanced powers, of unity with diversity -- and SO clear was their vision that it survives as the oldest written Constitution still in force in the world today. For almost two centuries since -- and dramatically in the 1930s -- at those great turning -points when the question has been between the States and the Federal Government, it has been resolved in favor of a stronger central government. During this time the nation grew and prospered. But one thing history tells us is that no great movement goes in the same direction forever. Nations change, they adapt, or they slowly die. GONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 9 - The time has come to reverse the flow of power and resources from the States and communities to Washington, and start power and resources flowing back from Washington to the Statesand communities more and/most important, to the people, all across America. The time has come for a new partnership between the Federal Government and the States and localities. INSERT I propose to the Congress tonight that we enact a plan of revenue sharing historic in scope and bold in concept. All across America today, States and cities are confronted with fa financial crisis. Some already have been cutting back on essential services -- for example, just recently San Diego and Cleveland cut back on trash collections; Los Angeles had to reduce its force of water hald and power workers. Most are caught between the prospects of bank- ruptcy on the one hand and adding to an already crushing tax burden on the other. As one indication of the rising costs of local government, I dis- covered the other day that my home town of Whittier, California - - with a population of only 67,000 -- has a budget for 1971 bigger than the entire Federal budget in 1791. Now the time has come to take a new direction, and once again to introduce a new and more creative balance in our approach to government. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 10 - So let us put the money where the needs are. And let us put the power to spend it where the people are. I propose that the Congress make a $16 billion investment in renewing State and local government -- with $5 billion of this in new and unrestricted funds, to be used as the States and localities see fit, and with the other $11 billion provided by converting one - third of the money going to the present narrow-purpose aid programs into Federal revenue sharing funds for six broad purposes -- urban development, rural development, education, transportation, man- power training and law enforcement - but with the States and localities making their own local decisions on how it should be spent. Insul The revenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress will include the safeguards against discrimination that accompany all other Federal funds allocated to the States, Neither the President nor the Congress nor the conscience of the nation can permit money which comes from all the people to be used in a way which discrimi- nates against some of the people. The Federal Government will still have a large and vital role to play in achieving our national purposes. Established functions CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 11 - that are clearly and essentially Federal in nature will still be per- formed by the Federal Government. New functions that need to be sponsored or performed by the Federal Government -- such as those I have urged tonight in welfare and health -- - - will be added to the Federal agenda. Whenever it makes the best sense for us to act as a whole nation, the Federal Government will lead the way. But where State or local governments can better do what needs to be done, let us see that they have the resources to do it. Under this plan, the Federal Government will provide the States and localities with more money and less interference -- and by cutting down the interference the same amount of money will go a lot further. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 12 - Let us share our resources: -- to rescue the States and localities from the brink of finan- cial crisis -- and to give homeowners and wage earners a chance to escape from ever-higher property taxes and sales taxes. Let us share our resources for two other reasons as well. The first of these reasons has to do with government itself, and the second with the individual. Let's face it. Most Americans today are simply fed up with government at all levels. The fact is that we have made the Federal Government so strong it grows muscle-bound and the States and localities SO weak they approach impotence. If we put more power in more places, we can make government more creative in more places. For that way we multiply the number of people with the ability to make things happen -- and we can open the way to a new burst of creative energy throughout America. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 13 - The final reason I urge this historic shift is much more per- sonál, for each and every one of us. Millions of frustrated young Americans today are crying out - - asking not what will government do for me, but what can I do, how can I contribute, how can I matter? to Them and to all Americans Let us answer them. Let us say we hear you and we will give you a chance. We are going to give you a new chance to have more to say about the decisions that affect your future -- to participate in government - - because we are going to provide more centers of power where what you do can make a difference that you can see and feel in your own life and the life of your whole community. The further away government is from people, the stronger government becomes and the weaker people become. And a nation with a strong government and a weak people is an empty shell. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 14 - I reject the patronizing idea that government in Washington, D. C. is inevitably more wise, more honest and more efficient than govern- ment at the local or State level. The honesty and efficiency of govern- ment depends on people. Government at all levels has good people and bad people. And the way to get more good people into governme nt is to give them more freedom to do good things. The idea that a bureaucratic elite in Washington knows best what is best for people everywhere and that you cannot trust local govern- ment is really a contention that you cannot trust people to govern them- selves. This notion is completely foreign to the American experience. Local government is the government closest to the people and most responsive to the individual person; it is people's government in a far more intimate way than the government in Washington can ever be. People came to America because they wanted to determine their own future rather than to live in a country where others determined their future for them. What this change means is that once again we are placing our trust in people. I have faith in people. I trust the judgment of people. Let us give the people a chance, a bigger voice in deciding for themselves those questions that so greatly affect their lives. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 15 - The sixth great goal is a complete reform of the Federal Gov- ernment itself. Based on a long and intensive study with the aid of the best ad- vice obtainable, I have concluded that a sweeping reorganization of the Executive Branch is needed if the government is to keep up with the times and the needs of the people. I propose that we reduce the present twelve Cabinet Departments to eight. I propose that the Departments of State, Treasury, Defense and Justice remain, but that all the other departments be consolidated into four: Human Resources, Community Development, Natural Resources, and Economic Development. Let us look at what these would be: -- First, a department dealing with the concerns of people -- as individuals, as members of a family -- a department focused on human needs. - - Second, a department concerned with the community -- rural communities and urban -- and with all that it takes to make a commu- nity function as a community. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 16 - -- Third, a department concerned with our physical environment, and with the preservation and balanced use of those great natural resources on which our nation depends. - - And fourth, a department concerned with our prosperity -- with our jobs, our businesses, and those many activities that keep our economy running smoothly and well. Under this plan, rather than dividing up our departments by narrow subjects, we would organize them around the great purposes of government. Rather than scattering responsibility by adding new levels of bureaucracy, we would focus and concentrate the responsi- bility for getting problems solved. With these four departments, when we have a problem we will know where to go -- and the department will have the authority and the resources to do something about it. Over the years we have added departments and created agencies, each to serve a new constituency or to handle a particular task - - and these have grown and multiplied in what has become a hopeless confusion of form and function. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 17 - The time has come to match our structure to our purposes -- to look with a fresh eye, and to organize the government by conscious, comprehensive design to meet the new needs of a new era. One hundred years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood on a battlefield and spoke of a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Too often since then, we have become a nation of the Govern- ment, by the Government, and for the Government. By enacting these reforms, we can renew that principle that Lincoln stated SO simply and so well. By giving everyone's voice a chance to be heard, we will have government that truly is of the people. By creating more centers of meaningful power, more places where decisions that really count can be made, by giving more people a chance to do something, we can have government that truly is by the people. And by replacing our obsolete Federal machinery with a new, modern, functional design, we in Washington will at last be able to provide government that truly is for the people. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 18 - I realize that what I am asking is that not only the Executive Branch in Washington but even this Congress will have to change by giving up some of its power. Change is hard. But without change there can be no progress. And for each of us the question must be, not "Will change cause me inconvenience? 11 but "Will change bring the country progress? " Giving up power is hard. But I would urge all of you, as leaders of this country, to remember that the truly revered leaders in world history are those who gave power to people, not those who took it away. As we consider these reforms we will be acting, not for the next two years or the next ten years, but for the next hundred years. So let us approach these six great goals with a sense, not only of this moment in history, but also of history itself. Let us act with the willingness to work together and the vision and the boldness and the courage of those great Americans who met in Philadelphia almost 190 years ago to create a Constitution. Let us leave a heritage as they did - - not just for our children but for millions yet unborn -- of a nation where every American will have a chance not only to live in peace and to enjoy prosperity and opportunity, but to participate in a system of government where he knows not only his CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 19 - votes but his ideas count -- a system of government which will provide the means for America to reach heights of achievement undreamed of before. Those men who met in Philadelphia left a great heritage because they had a vision -- - -- not only of what the nation was, but of what it could become. As I think of that vision, I recall that America was founded as the land of the open door -- as a haven for the oppressed, a land of opportunity, a place of refuge and of hope. When the first settlers opened the door of America three and a half centuries ago, they came to escape persecution and to find opportunity and they left wide the door of welcome for others to follow. When the thirteen colonies declared their independence almost two centuries ago, they opened the door to a new vision of liberty and of human fulfillment -- not just for an elite, but for all. To the generations that followed, America's was the open door that beckoned millions from the old world to the new in search of a better life, a freer life, a fuller life, in which by their own decisions they could shape their own destinies. They came to find opportunity for themselves and to ensure it for their children. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU -- 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 20 - For the black American, the Indian, the Mexican-American, and for those others in our land who have not had an equal chance, the nation at last has begun to confront the need to press open the door of full and equal opportunity, and of human dignity. For all Americans, with these changes I have proposed tonight we can open the door to a new era of opportunity. We can open the door to full and effective participation in the decisions that affect their lives. We can open the door to a new partnership among governments at all levels, and between those governments and the people themselves. And by SO doing, we can open wide the doors of human fulfillment for millions of people here in America. In the next few weeks I will spell out in greater detail the way I propose that we achieve these six great goals. I ask this Congress to be responsive. If it is, then the 92nd Congress, at the end of its term, will be able to look back on a record more splendid than any in our history. This can be the Congress that helped us end the longest war in the nation's history, and end it in a way that will give us at last a genuine chance for a full generation of peace. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 21 - This can be the Congress that helped achieve an expanding economy, with full employment and without inflation -- and without the deadly stimulus of war. This can be the Congress that reformed a welfare system that has robbed recipients of their dignity while it robbed States and cities of their resources. This can be the Congress that pressed forward the rescue of our environment, and established for the next generation an enduring legacy of parks for the people. This can be the Congress that launched a new era in American medicine, in which the quality of medical care was enhanced while the costs were made less burdensome. But above all, what this Congress can be remembered for is opening the way to a new American Revolution -- a peaceful revolution in which power was turned back to the people -- in which government at all levels was refreshed and renewed, and made truly responsive. This can be a revolution as profound, as far-reaching, as exciting, as that first revolution almost 200 years ago -- and it can mean that just five years from now America will enter its third century as a nation new in spirit, with all the vigor and freshness with which it began its first century. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 11th Draft 1/22/71 - 22 - My colleagues in the Congress -- these are great goals, and they can make the sessions of this Congress a great moment for America. So let us pledge together to go forward together -- to make this the greatest Congress in the history of this great and good nation, and by achieving these goals to give America the foundation today for its greatness tomorrow and in all the years to come. #### CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - 15 - (2) And with the other $11 billion provided by allocating $1 billion of new funds and converting one -third of the money going to the present narrow-purpose aid programs into Federal revenue sharing funds for six broad purposes -- - 1. Urban development, 2. Rural development, 3. Education, 4. Transportation, 5. Job Training, and 6. Law enforcement. (3) But with the States and localities making their own decisions on how it should be spent. (4) For the next fiscal year, this would increase total Federal aid to the States and localities more than 25 percent over the present level. 7. The revenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress will be embodied in a group of bills defining these general and special revenue sharing proposals. (1) All will include the safeguards against discrimination that accompany all other Federal funds allocated to the States. Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum DETERMINED TO BE AN ADMINISTRATIVE MARKING E.O. 12065, Section 6-102 CONFIDENTIAL By MH NARS, Date 9/2/81 (Safire/Huebner/Koch/Price) RP 8th Draft January 20, 1971 STATE OF THE UNION Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our distinguished guests and my fellow Americans: I take a very special pleasure this evening in welcoming the members of the 92nd Congress -- both those who are returning, and those newly elected. [Albert ad lib] This 92nd Congress has a chance to be recorded as the greatest Congress in America's history. In the past two years, we have been preparing the way for turning America in a new and dramatically promising direction. The war in Vietnam at last is ending -- and ending in a way that gives Americans a chance to enjoy what we have not had in this century -- a full generation of peace. We have made significant progress in restoring peace in America. The rate of increase in crime has been slowed, and here in our Capital City it has been reversed. With the help of the legislation passed in the final days of the last Congress, we now have the weapons to wage a winning war on crime. CONFIDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum CONFIDENTIAL SU - 8th Draft 1/20/71 - 2 - We are effectively slowing down the worst inflation in more than 20 years. We have moved aggressively to restore and protect our natural environment -- to undo the damage that has been done, and to replenish this good earth. In the difficult field of race relations, there has been progress of historic dimension. Despite the frightening predictions of mass defiance of the law, in this past year we have seen a virtual ending of the dual school system in America. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of public- spirited leaders in the South, both black and white, we saw it end with only minimum disruption and without violence. These accomplishments are significant. But they are only a beginning. The people of this nation are now eager to get on with the quest for new greatness which has always characterized Americans and which has kept this nation free. They see challenges throughout the land, and they are prepared to meet those challenges. It is for us here to open the doors that will , set free again the real greatness of this nation -- the genius of the American people. CONF IDENTIAL Reproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum

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    "ocrText": "DETERMINED TO BE AN\nADMINISTRATIVE MARKING\nMEMORANDUM\nE.O. 12065, Section 6-102\nBy\nMH NARS, Date 9/1/81\nTHE WHITE HOUSE\nCONFIDENTIAL\nWASHINGTON\nJanuary 21, 1971\nTHE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN\nX\nMEMORANDUM FOR:\nTHE PRESIDENT\nFROM:\nRAY PRICE\nSUBJECT:\nState of the Union\nOn the quote you were looking for \"I'd rather be\na citizen.\n\")the nearest that either our researchers\nor their outside consultants have been able to come up\nwith is this from John Adams, in a letter to Abigail:\n\"I had rather build stone wall upon Penn's Hill,\nthan to be the first Prince in Europe. \"\nResy\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nDETERMINED TO BE AN\nADMINISTRATIVE MARKING\nE.O. 12065, Section 6-102\nMEMORANDUM\nBy MH NARS, Date 9/1/81\nTHE WHITE HOUSE\nCONFIDENTIAL\nWASHINGTON\nJanuary 21. 1971\nTHE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN\nMEMORANDUM FOR:\nTHE PRESIDENT\nFROM:\nRAY PRICE\nSUBJECT:\nState of the Union\nThe nightmare/dream le ad you asked for is\nattached.\nOur hand count of the 8th Draft (original version;\nnot the revised) has now been completed: 4940.\nRuP1\nAttachment\nNightmare/dream lead opener\nto substitute for pp 1-2 - 8th Draft\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nMEMORANDUM\nTHE WHITE HOUSE\nCONFIDENTIAL\nWASHINGTON\nJanuary 21. 1971\nDETERMINED TO BE AN\nADMINISTRATIVE MARKING\nE.O. 12065, Section 6-102\nBy\nMH NARS, Date 9/1/81\nMEMORANDUM FOR:\nTHE PRESIDENT\nFROM:\nRAY PRICE\nSUBJECT:\nState of the Union\nThe nightmare/dream le ad you asked for is\nattached.\nOur hand count of the 8th Draft (original version;\nnot the revised) has now been completed: 4940.\nRuP1\nAttachment\nNightmare/dream lead opener\nto substitute for pp 1-2 - 8th Draft\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nDETERMINED TO BE AN\nADMINISTRATIVE MARKING\nE.O. 12065, Section 6-102\nCONFIDENTIAL By MH NARS, Date 9/1/81\nJanuary 21, 1971\nSTATE OF THE UNION\nPossible nightmare/dream\nopener (Substitute for\npages 1 and 2)\nMr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our\ndistinguished guests and my fellow Americans:\nI take a very special pleasure this evening in welcoming the\nmembers of the 92nd Congress -- both those who are returning, and\nthose newly elected. [Albert ad lib]\nThis 92nd Congress has a chance to be recorded as the greatest\nCongress in America's history.\nIn these troubled years just past, America has been going through\na long nightmare of war and division, of crime and inflation. Even more\ndeeply, we have gone through a tortured nightmare of the America n spirit.\nBut now that nightmare is ending. Now we can let our spirits begin to\nsoar again. Now we are ready again for the lift of a driving dream.\nThe people of this nation are now eager to get on with the\nquest for new greatness which has always characterized Americans\nand which has kept this nation free. They see challenges throughout\nthe land, and they are prepared to meet those challenges. It is for us\nhere to open the doors that will set free again the real greatness of this\nnation - - the genius of the American people.\nHow do we must The challyn\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nDETERMINED TO BE AN\nADMINISTRATIVE MARKING\nE.O. 12065, Section 6-102\nBy MH HARS, Date 9/1/81\nCONFIDENTIAL\nJanuary 21, 1971\nSTATE OF THE UNION\nPossible nightmare/dream\nopener (Substitute for\npages 1 and 2)\nMr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our\ndistinguished guests and my fellow Americans:\nI take a very special pleasure this evening in welcoming the\nmembers of the 92nd Congress -- - both those who are returning, and\nthose newly elected. [Albert ad lib]\nThis 92nd Congress has a chance to be recorded as the greatest\nCongress in America's history.\nIn these troubled years just past, America has been going through\na long nightmare of war and division, of crime and inflation. Even more\ndeeply, we have gone through a tortured nightmare of the American spirit.\nBut now that nightmare is ending. Now we can let our spirits begin to\nsoar again. Now we are ready again for the lift of a driving dream.\nThe people of this nation are now eager to get on with the\nquest for new greatness which has always characterized Americans\nand which has kept this nation free. They see challenges throughout\nthe land, and they are prepared to meet those challenges. It is for us\nhere to open the doors that will set free again the real greatness of this\nnation -- the genius of the Americanpeople.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU -- 8th Draft\n1/20/71 How shall we - meet 3 - this challenge?\nWhat shall we do with this new beginning? And how can we tr uly\nHas can we truely\na open the doors, and set free the full genius of our people?\nThe way in which the 92nd Congress answers these questions\nwill determine its place in history. More importantly, it can determine\nthis nation's place in history as we enter the third century of our indepen-\ndence.\nAs we turn\n:\nto this task together, we see\nsix great goals that can make this Congress the most important since\nthe first American Congress -- the Continental Congress -- met\nyears ago.\nIn discussing these great goals I am dealing tonight only with\nmatters on the domestic side of the nation's agenda. I shall make a\nseparate report to the Congress and the nation next month on develop-\nments in our foreign policy.\nOur ability to achieve a lasting peace in the world of course will\nhave a great, and even decisive, bearing on all of our lives here at\nhome. But we now can confidently base our domestic plans on the\nprospect of such a peace.\nThe first of these six great goals is already before the Congress.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 4 -\nI urge that the unfinished business of the 91st Congress must be\nthe first priority of the 92nd.\nOver the next two weeks, I will re submit more than 35 pieces\nof proposed legislation on which action was not completed last year.\nThe most important is welfare reform. I Iwas especially pleased\nthat with bipartisan cooperation, this was the first bill introduced in the\nHouse of Representatives in yesterday's opening session.\nThe present welfare system has become a monstrous, consuming\noutrage -- an outrage against the community, against the taxpayer, and\nparticularly against the children it is supposed to help.\nEvery day the situation grows worse -- and the welfare rolls grow\nlonger. It was less than a year and a half ago that I proposed my plan\nfor welfare reform to the Congress. Since that time, the number of\npeople receiving Aid to Families with Depondent Children has grown by\n2 million and the annual rate of expenditures has risen by more than\na billion and a half dollars. If present trends continue these annual\nexpenditures will triple in the next five years to more than $15 billion.\nBut even worse than the cost in terms of money is the cost that\ncannot be measured in dollars the increase in human despair,\ndisillusion and disenchantment.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\nDraft\n1/20/71\n- 5 -\nAnd what will we get for our $15 billion? Just more of the same\n-- more of the old incentives to avoid work instead of accepting it, more\nof the old incentives to break families apart instead of holding them\ntogether and more millions of children with their childhood blighted\nand headed toward their own lives of drabness and dependency.\nWe may honestly disagree on what to do about it. But we can all\nagree that the present welfare system is a national disgrace and-we\nmust meet the challenge not by pouring more money into the old system,\nbut by discarding it and adopting a new program.\nWe must start getting people off the welfare rolls and onto payrolls.\nLet us place a floor under the income of every family in America. But\nlet us also establish an effective work incentive and an effective work\nrequirement. Let us provide the means by which more can help them\nselves\nLet us generously help those who cannot help themselves. But\nlet us stop helping those who are able to help themselves and refuse to\ndo so.\nThe second great goal is to achieve what Americans have not en-\njoyed since 1957 -- prosperity in peacetime.\nThe tide of inflation has been turned. The rise in the cost of living,\nwhich had been gathering dangerous momentum in the late Sixties, was\nactually reduced last year. Inflation will be further reduced this year.\nHigh interest rates have dramatically declined, which is already making\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n-5 a -\nit easier for American families to buy a house or to finance a car\nBut as we have made the move from runaway inflation toward\natthe\nreasonable stability rasiwe have made the move from a wartime\neconomy\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 6 -\nto a peacetime economy, we have paid a price in unemployment. One\nmillion, nine hundred thousand jobs came to an end in our armed forces\nand\ndefense UXA we plants should in this past take two no years. comfort for the fact\nIt is true that despite this the level of unemployment in this\ntransition from a wartime to a peacetime economy is lower than at\nany peacetime year of the 1960s.\nBut although that level may have been consider ed good enough in\nthe early Sixties; it is not good enough for this Administ ation. It is\nnot good enough for the man who is unemployed in the Seventies. We\nmust do better for workers in peacetime, and we will do better.\nTo achieve this, I shall submit an expansionary budget this year\none that will help stimulate the economy and thereby open up new\njob opportunities for millions of Americans.\nIt will be a full-employment budget -- that is, a budget designed\nto be in balance if the economy were operating at its peak potential.\nBy spending as if we were at full employment, we will help to bring\nabout full employment.\nI ask the Congress to accept these expansionary policies -- to\naccept the concept of the full employment budget.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 7 -\nAt the same time, I ask the Congress to cooperate in resisting\nexpenditures that go beyond the limits of the full employment budget.\nFor as we wage a campaign to bring about a widely shared prosperity,\nwe must not permit a rapidly rising cost of living to undermine that\nprosperity.\nThis Administration has proven it has the courage to step on\nthe brakes when the cost of living speeds up too fast. We now have\nour foot on the accelerator, but this time business, labor and govern-\nment all must realize that the American people expect them to stay\nwithin the speed limit.\nWith the stimulus and the discipline of a full employment budget;\nwith the cooperation of the independent Federal Reserve System to\nprovide fully for the monetary needs of a growing economy; and with a\nmuch greater effort by labor and management to make their wage and\nprice decisions in the light of the national interest and their own long-run\nbest interests -- we shall gain the goal of a new prosperity: more jobs\nand more profits, without inflation and without war.\nThis is a great goal, and one that we can achieve together.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 8 -\nThe third great goal is to continue with greater vigor\nthe great effort of which this past year marked SO dramatic a\nbeginning: to restore and enhance our natural environment.\nBuilding on the foundation laid in the 37-point program I\nsubmitted to Congress last year, I will be proposing a strong new\nset of initiatives to clean up our air and water, to combat noise,\nand to preserve and restore our surroundings. And not only to\nmeet today's needs but to anticipate those of tomorrow, these pro-\nposals will include the most extensive program ever proposed by\na President to expand the nation's parks, public recreation areas\nand open spaces in a way that truly brings parks to the people.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReve\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 9 -\nAs a fourth great goal, I will offer a far-reaching set of pro-\nposals for improving America's health care and making it available\nmore fairly to more people.\nIn recent years, almost the entire focus of government support\nhas been on helping people meet the cost of medical care. But pro-\ntection against the cost of care does little good when the care itself\nis not available because enough doctors, or nurses, or hospitals or\nother facilities are not available, or not available where they are\nneeded; or because we have not done all we can to find cures for\ndreaded diseases; or because our health policies are designed only\nto take care of people after they get sick instead of keeping them\nfrom getting sick.\nThis is why my health proposals will emphasize the supply of\nmedical care. It will also include an improved program for finane-\ncing health care that many people now need but cannot afford.\nAmerican has long been the wealthiest nation in the world. Now\nit is time we became the healthiest nation in the world.\nTo help us become so, I will propose:\n-- A program designed to insure that no American family will\nbe prevented from obtaining a reasonable and basic standard of\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 10 -\nmedical care by inability to pay.\n-- A major increase in aid to medical schools, SO that we can\nincrease the number of doctors 50 percent by the end of the decade.\n-- New incentives to encourage better preventive medicine,\ngreater use of nurses and medical assistants and a fairer distribu-\ntion of medical services -- SO that care is available where sick\npeople are rather than being concentrated primarily where only the rich people\nare.\nAs part of our Family Health care, I will ask an appropriation\nof an extra $100 million to launch an intensive campaign to find cures\nfor cancer and sickle-cell anemia -- and I will ask later for what\nadditional funds may become necessary. With the kind of concen-\ntrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon, we now\ncan also conquer these dread diseases. Let us make a total national\ncommitment to do so.\nThe fifth great goal is to strengthen and renew our State and\nlocal governments.\nAs we approach our 200th anniversary in 1976, we remember\nalso that as this nation launched itself as a loose confederation of\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 11 -\nseparate States, without a workable central government. At that\ntime, the mark of its leaders' vision was that they quickly saw the\nneed to balance the separate powers of the States with a government\nof central powers. They saw that only if the young nation could act\nas one nation could the experiment succeed.\nAnd SO they gave us a Constitution of balanced powers, of unity\nwith diversity -- and so clear was their vision that it survives as the\noldest written Constitution still in force in the world today.\nFor almost two centuries since -- and dramatically in the 1930s\n-- at those great turning-points when the question has been between\nthe States and the Federal Government, it has been resolved in favor\nof a stronger central government. During this time the nation grew\nand prospered.\nBut one thing history tells us is that no great movement goes in\nthe same direction forever. Nations change, they adapt, or they\nslowly die.\nAnd indication of how America has changed is that my home\ntown of Whittier, California - with a population of only 67,000 -- has\na budget for 1971 bigger than the entire Federal budget in 1791.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 11A -\nNow the time has come to take a new direction, and once again\nto introduce a new balance in our approach to government.\nThe time has come to reverse the flow of power and resources\nfrom the States and communities to Washington, and start power and\nresources flowing back from Washington to the States and communities\nand most important, to the people, all across America.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 12 -\nI propose to the Congress tonight that we enact a plan of revenue\nsharing historic in scope and bold in concept.\nThe time has come for a new partnership between the Federal\nGovernment and the States and localities.\nDuring these past two years I have talked with hundreds of\nGovernors, Mayors, County Executives and other State and local\nofficials. Their needs are real and acute. All across America today,\nStates and localities are confronted with a financial crisis. Some\nalready have been cutting back on essential services -- for example,\njust recently San Diego and Cleveland cut back on trash collections;\nLos Angeles had to reduce its force of water and power workers.\nMost are caught between the prospects of bankruptcy on the one hand\nand adding to what already is a crushing tax burden on the other.\nAlready State and local debt has gone up 600 percent in the\npast two decades.) State and local taxes today are more than two and\na half times what they were only ten years ago, and constantly going\nhigher.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 13 -\nSo let us put the money where the needs are. And let us put\nthe power to spend it where the people are.\nRather than having a few people in Washington making the\ndecisions as to what government ought to do for people, let us give\nthe American people a bigger voice in determining their future and\nthis nation's future.\nI propose that the Congress make a $16 billion investment in\nrenewing State and local government -- with $5 billion of this in new\nand unrestricted funds, to be used as the States and localities see fit,\nand with the other $11 billion provided by converting one-third of the\nmoney going to the present narrow-purpose aid programs into Federal\nrevenue sharing funds for six broad purposes -- such as urban develop-\nment, rural development education and the like but with the States\nand localities making their own local decisions on how it should be\nspent.\nUnder this plan, the Federal Government will provide the States\nand localities with more money and less interference -- and by cutting\ndown the interference the same amount of money will go a lot further.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 14 -\nThis new support for State and local government does not mean\na dismantling of the Federal Government, or an abandoning of its\nresponsibilities.\nEstablished functions that are clearly and essentially Federal in\nnature will still be performed by the Federal Government. New functions\nthat need to be sponsored or performed by the Federal Government --\nsuch as those I have urged tonight in welfare and health -- will be\nadded to the Federal agenda. Whenever it makes the best sense for us\nto act as a whole nation, the Federal Government will lead the way.\nNeither will revenue sharing be a vehicle for retreat from\nFederal protections for the rights of racial and other minorities. The\nrevenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress will include the\nsafeguards against discrimination that accompany all other Federal\nfunds allocated to the States. Neither the President nor the Congress\nnor the conscience of the nation can permit money which comes from\nall the people to be used in a way which discriminates against some\nof the people.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 15 -\nWhat this does mean is that once again we are placing our trust\nin people.\nI have faith in people. I trust the judgment of people. Let us\ngive the people a chance, a bigger voice in deciding their future and the\nfuture of this country.\nThe further away government is from people, the stronger govern-\nment becomes and the weaker people become. And a nation with a strong\ngovernment and a weak people is like an empty shell.\nThe idea that a bureaucratic elite in Washington knows what is best\nfor people and that you cannot trust local government is in effect contend-\ning that you C annot trust people to govern themselves. This notion is\ncompletely foreign to the American experience. Local government is\nthe government closest to the people and most responsive to the people;\nit is people's government far more than the government in Washington.\npeople came to America because they wanted to determine their own\nfuture rather than to live in a country where others determined their future\nfor them.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 16 -\nLet us share our resources:\n-- to rescue the States and localities from the\nbrink of financial crisis\n-- and to give homeowners and wage earners a\nchance to escape from ever-higher property taxes and\nsales taxes.\nLet us share our resources for two other reasons as well.\nThe first of these reasons has to do with government itself, and\nthe second with the individual.\nOn every hand, we can feel a rising frustration with governments\nthat seem incapable of performing.\nThe fact is that we have made the Federal Government soostrong\nit is musclebound and the States and localities so weak they are impo- -\ntent. States and localities are unable to do what they should be doing\nbecause Washington holds both the reins of power and the strings of\nthe purse.\nThere is an old saying that \"you can't fight city hall. 11 Well,\nthis is not true. You can fight city hall -- and what is more you can\nfight it a lot more effectively and with a lot better chance of success\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 17 -\nthan you can fight some distant department down in Washington. Be-\nyond this, you can work with city hall -- and you can have a better\nchance of getting city hall to work with you than you could in the case\nof that same distant department down in Washington.\nThe idea that government in Washington, D. C. is inevitably\nmore wise, honest and efficient than government at the local or\nState level is a complete rejection of the American experience.\nThe honesty and efficiency of government depends on people, and\ngovernment at all levels has good people and bad people. The major\ndifference between governments is that government closest to people\nis most responsive to people.\nWe can also have more creative government in more places if\nwe put more power in more places. That way we multiply the num-\nber of people with the ability to make things happen -- and we can\nopen the way to a new burst of creative energy throughout America.\nThe final reason I urge this historic shift is much more personal,\nfor each and every one of us.\nThe most important thing in life is not how much we own or even\nhow well fed or how well clothed we are. These matter, yes; they\nmatter very much. But what matters most is what each of us carries\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 17A -\nwithin himself, in his soul and spirit: The sense that he matters, that\nhe has a voice, that he has a hand in the shaping of his own destiny.\nMillions of frustrated young Americans today are crying out --\nasking not what will government do for me but what can we do, how\ncan we contribute, how can we matter?\nThe difficulty today is that as far as government is concerned\nall that seems to matter is what happens in Washington, D. C.\nLet us answer them. Let us say we hear you and we will give\nyou a chance. We are going to give you a new chance to have more\nto say about the decisions that affect your future -- to participate in\ngovernment -- because we are going to provide more centers of power\nwhere what you do will really count.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 18 -\nThe sixth great goal is a complete reform of the Federal\nGovernment itself.\nIn the course of these past 24 years I have had a rare oppor-\ntunity. I have served in the House, in the Senate, foreeight years\nas Vice President. Then, for eight years as a private citizen, I\nhad a chance to reflect on what I had seen and learned. And now,\nin these two yearsas President, I have seen the government from\nyet another perspective.\nBased this experience, and based on a long and intensive\nstudy with the aid of the best advice available, I have concluded\nthat a sweeping reorganization of the Executive Branch itself is\nneeded if the government is to keep up with the times and the needs\nof the people.\nIn this past year we have made a beginning. We took the Post\nOffice out of politics. We brought pollution enforcement activities\ntogether in a new Environmental Protection Agency. We reorganized\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 19 -\nthe Executive Office of the President. We conformed the field oper-\nations of the major departments to a new pattern that made it easier\nfor govevnors and mayors and citizens to deal with them and to get\ndecisions.\nEach was the subject of often harshly critical questioning before\nit was done. But after it was done, the principal question asked was\nwhy it had not been done sooner.\nFor with each of these changes, the government did a better job\nfor the people.\nI propose we reduce the present twelve Cabinet Departments to\neight.\nI propose that the Departments of State, Treasury, Defense and\nJustice remain, and the other seven departments be consolidated into\nfour: Human Resources, Community Development, Natural Resources,\nand Economic Development.\nLet us look at what these would be:\n-- First, a department dealing with the concerns of\npeople -- as individuals, as members of a family --\na department focused on human needs.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 20 -\n-- Second, a department concerned with the\ncommunity -- and with all that it takes to make a com-\nmunity function as a community.\n-- Third, a department concerned with our\nphysical environment, and with the preservation and\nbalanced use of those great natural resources on which\nour nation depends.\n- - And fourth, a department concerned with our\nprosperity - - with our jobs, our businesses, and those\nmany activities that keep our economy running smoothly\nand well.\nUnder this plan, rather than dividing up our departments by\nnarrow subjects, we would organize them around the great purposes\nof government. Officials concerned with a common goal would work\ntogether in a single chain of command. Rather than scattering respon-\nsibility by adding new levels of bureaucracy, we would focus and concen-\ntrate the responsibility for getting problems solved.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 21 -\nThis follows a simple basic principle: that the activities of\ngovernment should be organized around its major purposes, and\nthat the programs related to those purposes should be brought\ntogether.\nWith these four departments, when we have a problem we will\nknow where to go -- and the department will have the authority and the\nresources to do something about it.\nOver the years we have added departments and created agencies,\neach to serve a new constituency or to handle a particular task -- and\nthese have grown and multiplied in what has become a hopeless confusion\nof form and function.\nYet as any organization grows and takes on new functions, and as\nthe circumstances it deals with change, it too has to change in order to\ndeal with those new circumstances.\nGovernment is no exception.\nChange is hard. And a change so sweeping as this requires many\nothers to change too -- not least the Congress itself, because its com-\nmittees and the departments have developed together But without change\nthere can be no progress. And for each of us the question must be, not\n\"Will change cause me inconvenience?\" but \"Will change bring the country\nprogress?\"\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 22 -\nI have dealt with revenue sharing and government reorganization\nseparately, but they are two parts of an overall design.\nEither by itself would be a vast improvement. But each is only\nhalf the design.\nIf the new partnership is to work, it has to be strengthened at\nboth ends. The States and localities need more authority and more\nresources. The Federal Government needs less overlap, less confusion,\nand a sharper concentration of its resources and its energies.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 23 -\nI realize that what I am asking is that not only have to charge the Executive\nDepartment in Washington but even this Congress' will be giving up\nby\nsome of its power. from page H the encircled parta lestt\nGiving up power is hard. But let us remember that the truly\nrevered leaders in world history are those who gave power to people,\nnot those who took it away.\nAs we consider these reforms we will be acting, not for the\nnext two years or the next ten years, but for the next hundred years.\nSo let us approach these six great goals with a sense, not only\nof this moment in history, but also of history itself.\nLet us act with the willingness to work together and the vision\nand the boldness and the courage of those great Americans who met\nin Philadelphia 190 years ago.\nLet us leave a heritage as they did -- not just for our children\nbut for millions yet unborn of a new nation where every American will\nhave a chance not only to live in peace and to enjoy prosperity and\nopportunity, but to participate in a system of government where he\nknows not only his votes but his ideas count -- a system of government\nwhich will provide the means for America to reach heights of achieve-\nment undreamed of before.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 24 -\nThey left that heritage because they had a vision -- not only of\nwhat the nation was, but of what it could become.\nAs I think of that vision, I recall that America was founded as\nthe land of the open door -- as a haven for the oppressed, a land of\nopportunity, a place of refuge and of hope.\nWhen the first settlers opened the door of America three and a\nhalf centuries ago, they came to escape persecution and to find oppor- -\ntunity -- and they left wide the door of welcome for others to follow.\nWhen the thirteen colonies declared their independence almost\ntwo centuries ago, they opened the door to a new vision of liberty and\nof human fulfillment -- not just for an elite, but for all.\nTo the generations that followed, America's was the open door\nthat beckoned millions from the old world to the new in search of a\nbetter life, a freer life, a fuller life, in which by their own decisions\nthey could shape their own destinies. They came to find opportunity\nfor themselves and to ensure it for their children.\nFor the black American, the Indian, the Medican-American, and\nfor those others in our land who have been oppressed, the nation at last\nhas begun to confront the need to press open the door of full and equal\nopportunity, and of human dignity.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 25 -\nWith these changes I have proposed tonight, we can open the\ndoor to a new era of opportunity. We can open the door to a new\npartnership among governments at all levels, and between those\ngovernments and the people themselves. We can open the door of full\nand effective participation by all Americans in the decisions that affect\ntheir lives. And by so doing, we can open wide the doors of human\nfulfillment for millions of individual human beings here in America.\nIn the next few weeks I will be spelling out in greater detail the\nway I propose that we achieve these six great goals. I ask this Congress\nto be responsive. If it is, then the 92nd Congress, at the end of its\nterm, will be able to look back on a record more splendid than any in\nour history.\nThis can be the Congress that helped us end the longest war in\nthe nation's history, and end it in a way that will give us at last a\ngenuine chance for a full generation of peace.\nThis can be the Congress that helped achieve an expanding economy,\nwith full employment and without inflation -- and without the deadly\nstimulus of war.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 26 -\nThis can be the Congress that reformed a welfare system that\nhas robbed recipients of their dignity while it robbed States and cities\nof their resources.\nThis can be the Congress that launched a new era in American\nmedicine, in which the costs were made less burdensome while the\nquality of medical care was enhanced.\nBut above all, what this Congress can be remembered for is\nopening the way to a new American Revolution -- a new American\nRevolution in which power was turned back to the people -- in which\ngovernment at all levels was refreshed and renewed, and made truly\nresponsive. This can be a revolution as profound, as far-reaching,\nas exciting, as that first revolution almost 200 years ago -- and it can\nmean that America will enter its third century with all the vigor and\nfreshness with which it began its first.\nIf the Congress should act to achieve even one of these great\ngoals, it would be a good Congress. If it acts on all of them, it can\nbe the greatest Congress in the history of this great and good nation.\n####\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nMEMORANDUM\nTHE WHITE HOUSE\nWASHINGTON\nJanuary 21, 1971\nTHE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN\nY\nMEMORANDUM FOR:\nTHE PRESIDENT\nFROM:\nRAY PRICE\nSUBJECT:\nState of the Union\nThere was a mistake in numbering the pages\nin this latest draft.\nWhat appears on page 15 should follow page 11.\nAtta chment\nRuin\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n40.39\n4110\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSTATE OF THE UNION\n11th Draft Revised\nJanuary 22, 1971\nMr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our\ndistinguished guests and my fellow Americans:\nThis 92nd Congress has a chance to be recorded as the greatest\nCongress in America's history.\nIn these troubled years just past, America has been going\nthrough a long nightmare of war and division, of crime and infla-\ntion. Even more deeply, we have gone through a long, dark night of\nthe American spirit. But now that night is ending. Now we must\nlet our spirits soar again. Now we are ready for the lift of a driving\ndream.\nThe people of this nation are eager to get on with the quest for\nnew greatness. They see challenges, and they are prepared to meet\nthose challenges. It is for us here to open the doors that will set\nfree again the real greatness of this nation -- the genius of the\nAmerican people.\nHow shall we meet this challenge ? How can we truly open the\ndoors, and set free the full genius of our people?\nDETERMINED TO BE AN\nADMINISTRATIVE MARKING\nCONFIDENTIAL\nE.O. 12065, Section 6-102\nBy\nMH\nNARS, Date 9/1/81\n169\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n-. 2 -\nThe way in which the 92nd Congress answers these questions\nwill determine its place in history. More importantly, it can deter-\nmine this nation's place in history as we enter the third century of\nour independence.\nTonight, I shall present to the Congress six great goals. I\nshall ask not simply for more new programs in the old framework,\nbut to change the framework itself - - to reform the entire structure\nof American government so we can make it again fully responsive to\nthe needs and the wishes of the American people.\nIf we act boldly -- if we seize this moment and achieve these\ngoals, we can close the gap between promise and performance in\nAmerican government, and bring together the resources of the nation\nand the spirit of the people.\nIn discussing these great goals, I am dealing tonight only with\nmatters on the domestic side of the nation's agenda. I shall make\na separate report to the Congress and the nation next month on\ndevelopments in our foreign policy.\nThe first of these six great goals is already before the Con-\ngress.\nCONFIDENTIAL\n1.81\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 3 -\nI urge that the unfinished business of the 91st Congress be\nmade the first priority of the 92nd.\nCongress to take action on\nOver the next two weeks, I will call upon/ more than 35 pieces\nof proposed legislation on which action was not completed last year.\nThe most important is welfare reform.\nThe present welfare system has become a monstrous, consuming\noutrage - an outrage against the community, against the taxpayer, and\nparticularly against the children it is supposed to help.\nWe may honestly disagree on what to do about it. But we can\nall agree that we must meet the challenge not by pouring more money\ninto the old system, but by abolishing it and adopting a new one.\nLet us place a floor under the income of every family with children\nin America - - and without those demeaning, soul-stifling affronts to\nhuman dignity that so blight the lives of welfare children today. But\nlet us also establish an effective work incentive and an effective work\nrequirement. Let us provide the means by which more can help them-\nselves. Let us generously help those who are not able to help themselves.\nBut let us stop helping those who are able to help themselves but refuse\nto do so.\nCONFIDENTIAL\n208\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n-- 4 -\nThe second great goal is to achieve what Americans have not\nenjoyed since 1957 -- full prosperity in peacetime.\nThe tide of inflation has turned. The rise in the cost of living,\nwhich had been gathering dangerous momentum in the late Sixties,\nwas reduced last year. Inflation will be further reduced this year.\nBut as we have made the move from runaway inflation toward\nreasonable price stability and as at the same time we have made\nthe move from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy, w'e have\npaid a price in unemployment. One million, nine hundred thousand\njobs came to an end in our armed forces and defense plants in this\npast two years.\nWe should take no comfort from the fact that the level of unem-\nployment in this transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy\nis lower than in any peacetime year of the 1960s.\nThis is not good enough for the man who is unemployed in the\nSevénties. We must do better for workers in peacetime and we will\ndo better.\nTo achieve this, I will submit an expansionary budget this year\none that will help stimulate the economy and thereby open up new\njob opportunities for millions of Americans.\nCONFIDENTIAL\n30\n+\n5\n203\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 5 -\nIt will be a full employment budget, a budget designed to be\nin balance if the economy were operating at its peak potential. By\nspending as if we were at full employment, we will help to bring\nabout full employment.\nI ask the Congress to accept these expansionary policies -- to\naccept the concept of the full employment budget.\nAt the same time, I ask the Congress to cooperate in resisting\nexpenditures that go beyond the limits of the full employment budget.\nFor as we wage a campaign to bring about a widely shared prosperity,\nwe must not re-ignite the fires of inflation and SO undermine that\nprosperity.\nWith the stimulus and the discipline of a full employment budget;\nwith the commitment of the independent Federal Reserve System to\nprovide fully for the monetary needs of a growing economy; and with\na much greater effort by labor and management to make their wage\nand price decisions in the light of the national interest and their own\nlong-run best interests -- then for the worker, the farmer, the\nconsumer, and for Americans everywhere we shall gain the goal of\na new prosperity: more jobs, more income and more profits, without\ninflation and without war.\nThis is a great goal; and one that we can achieve together.\nCONFIDENTIAL\n214\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 6 -\nThe third great goal is to continue the effort so dramatically\nbegun this past year: to restore and enhance our natural environ-\nment.\nBuilding on the foundation laid in the 37 -point program I sub-\nmitted to Congress last year, I will propose a strong new set of\ninitiatives to clean up our air and water, to combat noise, and to\npreserve and restore our surroundings.\nI will have programs to make better use of our land, and to\nencourage a balanced national growth that will enhance the quality\nof life in both urban and rural America.\nAnd not only to meet today's needs but to anticipate those of\ntomorrow, I will put forward the most extensive program ever\nproposed by a President to expand the nation's parks, park recrea-\ntion areas and open spaces in a way that truly brings parks to the\npeople. For only if we leave a legacy of parks will the next\ngeneration have parks to enjoy.\nAs a fourth great goal, I will offer a far-reaching set of pro-\nposals for improving America's health care and making it available\nmore fairly to more people.\nCONFIDENTIAL\n186+2\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 7 -\nI will propose:\n-- A program to insure that no American family will\nbe prevented from obtaining basic medical care by inability\nto pay.\n-- A major increase in and redirection of aid to medical\nschoòls, to greatly increase the number of doctors and other\nhealth personnel.\n- - New incentives to encourage better preventive medi-\ncine, greater use of nurses and medical assistants and a\nfairer distribution of medical services -- SO that care is\navailable where sick people are rather than being concen-\ntrated primarily where rich people are.\nI will also ask appropriation of an extra $10.0 million to launch an\nintensive campaign to find a cure for cancer, and I will ask later for\nwhat additional funds may become necessary. The time has come\nwhen the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took\nman to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread dis- -\nease. Surely these can be cured, and they must be cured. Let us\nmake a total national commitment to do SO.\n44\n+\n#42\nCONFIDENTIAL\n4,35\n167\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 8 -\nAmerica has long been the wealthiest nation in the world. Now\nit is time we became the healthiest nation in the world.\nThe fifth great goal is to strengthen and renew our State and\nlocal governments.\nAs we approach our 200th anniversary in 1976, we remember\nthat this nation launched itself as a loose confederation of separate\nStates, without a workable central government. At that time, the\nmark of its leaders' vision was that they quickly saw the need to\nbalance the separate powers of the States with a government of\ncentral powers.\nAnd so they gave us a Constitution of balanced powers, of unity\nwith diversity -- and SO clear was their vision that it survives as\nthe oldest written Constitution still in force in the world today.\nFor almost two centuries since -- and dramatically in the 1930s\nat those great turning -points when the question has been between\nthe States and the Federal Government, it has been resolved in favor\nof a stronger central government.\nDuring this time the nation grew and prospered. But one thing\nhistory tells us is that no great movement goes in the same direction\nforever. Nations change, they adapt, or they slowly die.\nCONFIDENTIAL\n199\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 9 -\nThe time has come to reverse the flow of power and resources\nfrom the States and communities to Washington, and start power and\nresources flowing back from Washington to the Statesand communities\nand most important, to the people, all across America.\nThe time has come for a new partnership between the Federal\nGovernment and the States and localities.\nI propose to the Congress tonight that we enact a plan of revenue\nsharing historic in scope and bold in concept.\nAll across America today, States and cities are confronted with\na financial crisis. Some already have been cutting back on essential\nservices -- for example, just recently San Diego and Cleveland cut\nback on trash collections; Los Angeles had to reduce its force of water\nand power workers. Most are caught between the prospects of bank-\nruptcy on the one hand and adding to an already crushing tax burden\non the other.\nAs one indication of the rising costs of local government, I dis-\ncovered the other day that my home town of Whittier, California - with\na population of only 67,000 - has a budget for 1971 bigger than the entire\nFederal budget in 1791.\nNow the time has come to take a new direction, and once again to\nintroduce a new and more creative balance in our approach to government.\n+22\nCONFIDENTIAL\n207\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n.\n- 10 -\nSo let us put the money where the needs are. And let us put\nthe power to spend it where the people are.\nI propose that the Congress make a $16 billion investment in\nrenewing State and local government -- with $5 billion of this in new\nand unrestricted funds, to be used as the States and localities, see\nfit, and with the other $11 billion provided by converting one-third\nallocating $1 billion of funds new\nand\nof the money going to the present narrow-purpose aid programs into\nFederal revenue sharing funds for six broad purposes -- urban\ndevelopment, rural development, education, transportation, man- job\npower training and law enforcement -- but with the States and localities\nmaking their own local decisions on how it should be spent. *A\nThe revenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress will be\nall will include the safeguards against discrimination that accompany all revenue\nembodied in a group of bills defining these general + special\nsharing\nother Federal funds allocated to the States, Neither the President proposalo\nnor the Congress nor the conscience of the nation can permit money\nwhich comes from all the people to be used in a way which discrimi-\nnates against some of the people.\nThe Federal Government will still have a large and vital role\nto play in achieving our national purposes. Established functions\nCONFIDENTIAL\n197\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nPage 10\nInsert A.\nFor the next fiscal year, this would increase total Federal\naid to the States and localities by more than twenty-five percent\nover the present level.\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 10 -\nSo let us put the money where the needs are. And let us put\nthe power to spend it where the people are.\nI propose that the Congress make a $16 billion investment in\nrenewing State and local government -- with $5 billion of this in new\nand unrestricted funds, to be used as the States and localities see\nbellion\nof\nallocating\nfit, and with the other $11 billion provided by converting one - third\nof the money going to the present narrow-purpose aid programs into\nFederal revenue sharing funds for six broad purposes - - urban\ndevelopment, rural development, education, transportation, -man- job\npower training and law enforcement -- but with the States and localities\nmaking their own local decisions on how it should be spent.\nKA\nThe revenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress will\nbe embodied no J Q.OLIE\ninclude the safeguards against discrimination that accompany all\nLb.\nother Federal funds allocated to the States, Neither the President\nby\nnor the Congress nor the conscience of the nation can permit money\nwhich comes from all the people to be used in a way which discrimi-\nall\nnates against some of the people.\nwill\nThe Federal Government will still have a large and vital role\nto play in achieving our national purposes. Established functions\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nbe embodied in a group of bills defining these general and\nspecial revenue sharing proposals. All will\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 11 -\nthat are clearly and essentially Federal in nature will still bè per-\nformed by the Federal Government. New functions that need to be\nsponsored or performed by the Federal Government -- - such as\nthose I have urged tonight in welfare and health -- will be added to\nthe Federal agenda. Whenever it makes the best sense for us to\nact as a whole nation, the Federal Government will lead the way.\nBut where State or local governments can better do what needs to\nbe done, let us see that they have the resources to do it.\nUnder this plan, the Federal Government will provide the\nStates and localities with more money and less interference -- and\nby cutting down the interference the same amount of money will go\na lot further.\nCONFIDENTIAL\n127\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 12 -\nLet us share our resources:\n- - to rescue the States and localities from the brink of finan-\ncial crisis\n-- and to give homeowners and wage earners a chance to\nescape from ever-higher property taxes and sales taxes.\nLet us share our resources for two other reasons as well.\nThe first of these reasons has to do with government itself, and\nthe second with the individual.\nLet's face it. Most Americans today are simply fed up with\ngovernment at all levels.\nThe fact is that we have made the Federal Government SO strong\nit grows muscle-bound and the States and localities so weak they\napproach impotence.\nIf we put more power in more places, we can make government\nmore creative in more places. For that way we multiply the number\nof people with the ability to make things happen -- and we can open\nthe way to a new burst of creative energy throughout America.\nCONFIDENTIAL\n+14\n153\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 13 -\nThe final reason Lurge this historic shift is much more per-\nsonál, for each and every one of us.\nMillions of frustrated young Americans today are crying out - -\nasking not what will government do for me, but what can I do, how\ncan I contribute, how can I matter?\nLet us answer them. Let us say we hear you and we will give\nyou a chance. We are going to give you a new chance to have more\nto say about the decisions that affect your future -- to participate in\ngovernment -- because we are going to provide more centers of /\npower where what you do can make a difference that you can see and\nfeel in your own life and the life of your whole community.\nThe further away government is from people, the stronger\ngovernment becomes and the weaker people become. And a nation\nwith a strong government and a weak people is an empty shell.\nCONFIDENTIAL\n157\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 14 -\nI reject the patronizing idea that government in Washington, D. C.\nis inevitably more wise, more honest and more efficient than govern-\nment at the local or State level. The honesty and efficiency of govern-\nment depends on people. Government at all levels has good people and\nbad people. And the way to get more good people into governme nt is to\ngive them more freedom to do good things.\nThe idea that a bureaucratic elite in Washington knows best what\nis best for people everywhere and that you cannot trust local govern-\nment is really a contention that you cannot trust people to govern them-\nselves. This notion is completely foreign to the American experience.\nLocal government is the government closest to the people and most\nresponsive to the individual person; it is people's government in a far\nmore intimate way than the government in Washington can ever be.\nPeople came to America because they wanted to determine their\nown future rather than to live in a country where others determined their\nfuture for them.\nWhat this change means is that once again we are placing our\ntrust in people.\nI have faith in people. I trust the judgment of people. Let us give\nthe people a chance, a bigger voice in deciding for themselves those\nquestions that so greatly affect their lives.\n1\nCONFIDENTIAL\n219\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 17 -\nThe time has come to match our structure to our purposes -- - - to\nlook with a fresh eye, and to organize the government by conscious,\ncomprehensive design to meet the new needs of a new era.\nOne hundred years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood on a battlefield\nand spoke of a government of the people, by the people and for the\npeople. Too often since then, we have become a nation of the Govern-\nment, by the Government, and for the Government.\nBy enacting these reforms, we can renew that principle that\nLincoln stated so simply and SO well.\n/\nBy giving everyone's voice a chance to be heard, we will have\ngovernment that truly is of the people.\nBy creating more centers of meaningful power, more places\nwhere decisions that really count can be made, by giving more people\na chance to do something, we can have government that truly is by the\npeople.\nAnd by replacing our obsolete Federal machinery with a new,\nmodern, functional design, we in Washington will at last be able to\nprovide government that truly is for the people.\nCONFIDENTIAL\n+13\n181\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 18 -\nI realize that what I am asking is that not only the Executive\nBranch in Washington but even this Congress will have to change by\ngiving up some of its power.\nChange is hard. But without change there can be no progress.\nAnd for each of us the question must be, not \"Will change cause me\ninconvenience? 11 but \"Will change bring the country progress? 11\nGiving up power is hard. But I would urge all of you, as leaders\nof this country, to remember that the truly revered leaders in world\nhistory are those who gave power to people, not those who took it away.\nAs we consider these reforms we will be acting, not for the next\ntwo years or the next ten years, but for the next hundred years.\nSo let us approach these six great goals with a sense, not only\nof this moment in history, but also of history itself.\nLet us act with the willingness to work together and the vision\nand the boldness and the courage of those great Americans who met in\nPhiladelphia almost 190 years ago to create a Constitution.\nLet us leave a heritage as they did - - not just for our children but\nfor millions yet unborn - - of a nation where every American will have\na chance not only to live in peace and to enjoy prosperity and opportunity,\nbut to participate in a system of government where he knows not only his\nCONFIDENTIAL\n-14\n241\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 19 -\nvotes but his ideas count -- a system of government which will provide\nthe means for America to reach heights of achievement undreamed of\nbefore.\nThose men who met in Philadelphia left a great heritage because\nthey had a vision -- not only of what the nation was, but of what it could\nbecome.\nAs I think of that vision, I recall that America was founded as the\nland of the open door -- as a haven for the oppressed, a land of opportunity,\na place of refuge and of hope.\n/\nWhen the first settlers opened the door of America three and a\nhalf centuries ago, they came to escape persecution and to find opportunity\n-- and they left wide the door of welcome for others to follow.\nWhen the thirteen colonies declared their independence almost two\ncenturies ago, they opened the door to a new vision of liberty and of human\nfulfillment -- not just for an elite, but for all.\nTo the generations that followed, America's was the open door\nthat beckoned millions from the old world to the new in search of a better\nlife, a freer life, a fuller life, in which by their own decisions they could\n/\nshape their own destinies. They came to find opportunity for themselves and\nto ensure it for their children.\n-14\nCONFIDENTIAL\n215\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 20 -\nFor the black American, the Indian, the Mexican-American,\nand for those others in our land who have not had an equal chance, the\nnation at last has begun to confront the need to press open the door of\nfull and equal opportunity, and of human dignity.\nFor all Americans, with these changes I have proposed tonight we\ncan open the door to a new era of opportunity. We can open the door to\nfull and effective participation in the decisions that affect their lives.\nWe can open the door to a new partnership among governments at all\nlevels, and between those governments and the people themselves. And\nby so doing, we can open wide the doors of human fulfillment for millions\nof people here in America.\nIn the next few weeks I will spell out in greater detail the way\nI propose that we achieve these six great goals. I ask this Congress\nto be responsive. If it is, then the 92nd Congress, at the end of its\nterm, will be able to look back on a record more splendid than any\nin our history.\nThis can be the Congress that helped us end the longest war in\nthe nation's history, and end it in a way that will give us at last a\ngenuine chance for a full generation of peace.\nCONFIDENTIAL\n223\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n-- 21 -\nThis can be the Congress that helped achieve an expanding\neconomy, with full employment and without inflation - - and without\nthe deadly stimulus of war.\nThis can be the Congress that reformed a welfare system that\nhas robbed recipients of their dignity while it robbed States and cities\nof their resources.\nThis can be the Congress that pressed forward the rescue of\nour environment, and established for the next generation an enduring\nlegacy of parks for the people.\nThis can be the Congress that launched a new era in American\nmedicine, in which the quality of medical care was enhanced while\nthe costs were made less burdensome.\nBut above all, what this Congress can be remembered for is\nopening the way to a new American Revolution -- a peaceful revolution\nin which power was turned back to the people - - in which government at\nall levels was refreshed and renewed, and made truly responsive. This\ncan be a revolution as profound, as far-reaching, as exciting, as that\nfirst revolution almost 200 years ago -- and it can mean that just five\nyears from now America will enter its third century as a nation new in\nspirit, with all the vigor and freshness with which it began its first century.\nCONFIDENTIAL\n+\n206\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 22 -\nMy colleagues in the Congress -- these are great goals, and\nthey can make the sessions of this Congress a great moment for\nAmerica. So let us pledge together to go forward together -- to\nmake this the greatest Congress in the history of this great and good\nnation, and by achieving these goals to give America the foundation\ntoday for its greatness tomorrow and in all the years to come.\n####\nCONFIDENTIAL\n+1\n69\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nDETERMINED TO BE AN\nADMINISTRATIVE MARKING\nE.O. 12065, Section 6-102\nBy\nMH NARS, Date 9/1/81\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSTATE OF THE UNION\n11th Draft\nJanuary 22, 1971\nMr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our\ndistinguished guests and my fellow Americans:\nThis 92nd Congress has a chance to be recorded as the greatest\nCongress in America's history.\nIn these troubled years just past, America has been going\nthrough a long nightmare of war and division, of crime and infla-\ntion. Even more deeply, we have gone through a long, dark night of\nthe American spirit. But now that night is ending. Now we must\nlet our spirits soar again. Now we are ready for the lift of a driving\ndream.\nThe people of this nation are eager to get on with the quest for\nnew greatness. They see challenges, and they are prepared to meet\nthose challenges. It is for us here to open the doors that will set\nfree again the real greatness of this nation -- the genius of the\nAmerican people.\nHow shall we meet this challenge ? How can we truly open the\ndoors, and set free the full genius of our people?\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 2 -\nThe way in which the 92nd Congress answers these questions\nwill determine its place in history. More importantly, it can deter-\nmine this nation's place in history as we enter the third century of\nour independence.\nTonight, I shall present to the Congress six great goals. I\nshall ask not simply for more new programssin the old framework,\nbut to change the framework itself - - to reform the entire structure\nof American government SO we can make it again fully responsive to\nthe needs and the wishes of the American people.\nIf we act boldly -- if we seize this moment and achieve these\ngoals we can close the gap between promise and performance in\nAmerican government, and bring together the resources of the nation\nand the spirit of the people.\nIn discussing these great goals, I am dealing tonight only with\nmatters on the domestic side of the nation's agenda. I shall make\na separate report to the Congress and the nation next month on\ndevelopments in our foreign policy.\nThe first of these six great goals is already before the Con-\ngress.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 3 -\nI urge that the unfinished business of the 91st Congress be\nmade the first priority of the 92nd.\nCongress to take action on\nOver the next two weeks, I will call upon/ more than 35 pieces\nof proposed legislation on which action was not completed last year.\nThe most important is welfare reform.\nThe present welfare system has become a monstrous, consuming\noutrage -- an outrage against the community, against the taxpayer, and\nparticularly against the children it is supposed to help.\nWe may honestly disagree on what to do about it. But we can\nall agree that we must meet the challenge not by pouring more money\ninto the old system, but by abolishing it and adopting a new one.\nLet us place a floor under the income of every family with children\nin America -- and without those demeaning, soul-stifling affronts to\nhuman dignity that SO blight the lives of welfare children today. But\nlet us also establish an effective work incentive and an effective work\nrequirement. Let us provide the means by which more can help them-\nselves\n#\nLet us generously help those who are not able to help themselves.\nBut let us stop helping those who are able to help themselves but refuse\nto do so.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 4 -\nThe second great goal is to achieve what Americans have not\nenjoyed since 1957 -- full prosperity in peacetime.\nThe tide of inflation has turned. The rise in the cost of living,\nwhich had been gathering dangerous momentum in the late Sixties,\nwas reduced last year. Inflation will be further reduced this year.\nBut as we have have made the move from runaway inflation toward\nreasonable price stability andres at the same time\nhave\nthe movel from wartime moving\na economy to a peacetime economy, we have\npaid a price in unemployment. One million, nine hundred thousand\njobs came to in armed forces defense plants this\npast two years\nWe should take no comfort from the fact that the level of unem-\nployment in this transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy\nis lower than in any peacetime year of the 1960s.\nThis is not good enough for the man who is unemployed in the\nSeventies. We must do better for workers in peacetime and we will\ndo better.\nTo achieve this, I will submit an expansionary budget this year\none that will help stimulate the economy and thereby open up new\njob opportunities for millions of Americans.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 5 -\nIt will be a full employment budget, a budget designed to be\nin balance if the economy were operating at its peak potential. By\nspending as if we were at full employment, we will help to bring\nabout full employment.\nI ask the Congress to accept these expansionary policies -- to\naccept the concept of the full employment budget.\nAt the same time, I ask the Congress to cooperate in resisting\nexpenditures that go beyond the limits of the full employment budget.\nFor as we wage a campaign to bring about a widely shared prosperity,\nwe must not re-ignite the fires of inflation and SO undermine that\nprosperity.\nWith the stimulus and the discipline of a full employment budget;\nwith the commitment of the independent Federal Reserve System to\nprovide fully for the monetary needs of a growing economy; and with\na much greater effort by labor and management to make their wage\nand price decisions in the light of the national interest and their own\nlong-run best interests -- then for the worker, the farmer, the\nconsumer, and for Americans everywhere we shall gain the goal of\na new prosperity: more jobs, more income and more profits, without\ninflation and without war.\nThis is a great goal, and one that we can achieve together.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\ngrouth wind\n1/22/71\n- 6\nThe third great goal is to continue the effort sp dramatically\nbegun this past year: to restore and enhance our natural environ-\nment.\nBuilding on the foundation laid in the 37-point program I sub-\nmitted to Congress last year, I will propose a strong new set of\ninitiatives to clean up our air and water, to combat noise, and to\npreserve and restore our surroundings.\nI will progrograms to make better use of our land, and to\nencourage a balanced national growththa\nof both urban and rural Ame\nAnd not only to meet today's needs but to anticipate those of\ntomorrow, I will put forward the most extensive program ever\nproposed by a President to expand the nation's parks, park recrea-\ntion areas and open spaces in a way that truly brings parks to the\npeople. For only if we leave a legacy of parks will the next\ngeneration have parks to enjoy.\nAs a fourth great goal, I will offer a far-reaching set of pro-\nposals for improving America's health care and making it available\nmore fairly to more people.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 7 -\nI will propose:\n-- A program to insure that no American family will\nbe prevented from obtaining basic medical care by inability\nto pay.\n-- A major increase in and redirection of aid to medical\nschools, to greatly increase the number of doctors and other\nhealth personnel.\n- - New incentives to encourage better preventive medi-\nSub\ncine, greater use of nurses and medical assistants and a\nfairer distribution of medical services -- SO that care is\nvoul\navailable where sick people are rather than being concen-\ntrated primarily where rich people are.\nI will also ask appropriation of an extra $100 million to launch an\nintensive campaign to find a cure for cancer, and I will ask later for\nwhatever\nCan effectively be used,\nwhat additional funds may become necessary. The time has come\nwhen the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took\nman to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread dis-\nease. Surely these can be cured, and they must be cured. Let us\nmake a total national commitment to do so. achieve This goal.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nINSERT A - Page 7\n3,\n-- Incentives to improve the delivery of health services,\nto get more medical care resources into those areas that have\nnot been adequately served, to make greater use of medical\nassistants and to slow the alarming rise in the costs of medical\ncare.\n4.\n- - New programs to encourage better preventive medicine,\nby attacking the causes of disease and injury, and by providing\nincentives to doctors to keep people well rather than just to\ntreat them when they are sick.\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 8 -\nAmerica has long been the wealthiest nation in the world. Now\nit is time we became the healthiest nation in the world.\nThe fifth great goal is to strengthen and renew our State and\nlocal governments.\nAs we approach our 200th anniversary in 1976, we remember\nthat this nation launched itself as a loose confederation of separate\nStates, without a workable central government. At that time, the\nmark of its leaders' vision was that they quickly saw the need to\nbalance the separate powers of the States with a government of\ncentral powers.\nAnd SO they gave us a Constitution of balanced powers, of unity\nwith diversity -- and so clear was their vision that it survives as\nthe oldest written Constitution still in force in the world today.\nFor almost two centuries since -- and dramatically in the 1930s\n-- at those great turning -points when the question has been between\nthe States and the Federal Government, it has been resolved in favor\nof a stronger central government.\nDuring this time the nation grew and prospered. But one thing\nhistory tells us is that no great movement goes in the same direction\nforever. Nations change, they adapt, or they slowly die.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nI\nAnd give X CONFIDENTIAL &&A\nshow\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 9 -\nThe time has come to reverse the flow of power and resources\nfrom the States and communities to Washington, and start power and\nresources flowing back from Washington to the Statesand communities\nand most important, to the people, all across America.\nA\nThe time has come for a new partnership between the Federal\nhaw\nGovernment and the States and localities in which wes give responsibility\nTo achieve This Soal,)\nto The states and localitize and\nI propose to the Congress tonight that we enact a plan of revenue\nsharing historic in scope and bold in concept.\nalso The resource to\nmut That\nAll across America today, States and cities are confronted with responsi-\na financial crisis. Some already have been cutting back on essential\nbately.\nservices - - for example, just recently San Diego and Cleveland cut\nback on trash collections; Los Angeles had to reduce its force of water\nand power workers. Most are caught between the prospects of bank-\nruptcy on the one hand and adding to an already crushing tax burden\non the other.\nAs one indication of the rising costs of local government, I dis-\ncovered the other day that my home town of Whittier, California - with\na population of only 67,000 -- has a budget for 1971 bigger than the entire\nFederal budget in 1791.\nNow the time has come to take a new direction, and once again to\nintroduce a new and more creative balance in our approach to government.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 10 -\nSo let us put the money where the needs are. And let us put\nthe power to spend it where the people are.\nI propose that the Congress make a $16 billion investment in\nrenewing State and local government with $5 billion of this in new\nand unrestricted funds, to be used as the States and localities see\nfit, and with the other $11 billion provided by converting one - third\nallocating $1billion of funds new\nof the money going to the present narrow-purpose aid programs into\nFederal revenue sharing funds for six broad purposes urban\ndevelopment, rural development, education, transportation, man- job\npower training and lawenforcement but with the States and localities\nmaking their own local decisions on how it should be spent. #A\nThe revenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress will\nall will include the safeguards against discrimination that accompany all\nbe embodied in a group of bills defenening these general special\nrevenue\nother Federal funds allocated to the States, Neither the President sharing proposals\nnor the Congress nor the conscience of the nation can permit money\nwhich comes from all the people to be used in a way which discrimi-\nnates against some of the people.\nThe Federal Government will still have a large and vital role\nto play in achieving our national purposes. Established functions\nCONFIDENTIAL\n+24\n197\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nPage 10\nInsert A.\nFor the next fiscal year, this would increase total Federal\naid to the States and localities by more than twenty-five percent\nover the present level.\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 11 -\nthat are clearly and essentially Federal in nature will still be per-\nformed by the Federal Government. New functions that need to be\nsponsored or performed by the Federal Government -- - such as\nthose I have urged tonight in welfare and health - - will be added to\nthe Federal agenda. Whenever it makes the best sense for us to\nact as a whole nation, the Federal Government will lead the way.\nBut where State or local governments can better do what needs to\nbe done, let us see that they have the resources to do it.\nUnder this plan, the Federal Government will provide the\nStates and localities with more money and less interference -- and\nby cutting down the interference the same amount of money will go\na lot further.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nnet N\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 12 -\nand that 7th A payment be ther n\nLet us share our resources:\n-- to rescue the States and localities from the brink of finan-\ncial crisis\n-- and to give homeowners and wage earners a chance to\nescape from ever-higher property taxes and sales taxes.\nLet us share our resources for two other reasons as well.\nThe first of these reasons has to do with government itself, and\nthe second with the individual.\nLet's face it. Most Americans today are simply fed up with\ngovernment at all levels.\nPags\nThe fact is that we have made the Federal Government SO strong\nit grows muscle-bound and the States and localities so weak they\napproach impotence.\nIf we put more power in more places, we can make government\nmore creative in more places. For that way we multiply the number\nof people with the ability to make things happen -- and we can open\nthe way to a new burst of creative energy throughout America.\nThis 0~2~\nbetween pupur\nCONFIDENTIAL\nThey will not /\nshould not-\nher to he\ncontribute and gap to be toterate twen promise The\nand preformance.\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 13 -\nThe final reason I urge this historic shift is much more per-\nsonál, for each and every one of us.\nMillions of frustrated young Americans today are crying out - -\nasking not what will government do for me, but what can I do, how\ncan I contribute, how can I matter?\nLet us answer them. Let us say we hear you and we will give\nyou a chance. We are going to give you a new chance to have more\nto say about the decisions that affect your future -- to participate in\ngovernment -- because we are going to provide more centers of\npower where what you do can make a difference that you can see and\nfeel in your own life and the life of your whole community.\nThe further away government is from people, the stronger\ngovernment becomes and the weaker people become. And a nation\nwith a strong government and a weak people is an empty shell.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 14 -\nI reject the patronizing idea that government in Washington, D. C.\nis inevitably more wise, more honest and more efficient than govern-\nment at the local or State level. / The honesty and efficiency of govern-\nment depends on people. Government at all levels has good people and\nbad people. And the way to get more good people into governme nt is to\ngive them more freedom to do good things.\nThe idea that a bureaucratic elite in Washington knows best what\nis best for people everywhere and that you cannot trust local govern-\nment is really a contention that you cannot trust people to govern them-\nselves. This notion is completely foreign to the American experience.\nLocal government is the government closest to the people and most\nresponsive to the individual person; it is people's government in a far\nmore intimate way than the government in Washington can ever be.\n/\nPeople came to America because they wanted to determine their\nown future rather than to live in a country where others determined their\nfuture for them.\nWhat this change means is that once again we are placing our\ntrust in people.\nI have faith in people. I trust the judgment of people. Let us give\nthe people a chance, a bigger voice in deciding for themselves those\nquestions that so greatly affect their lives.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 15 -\nThe sixth great goal is a complete reform of the Federal Gov-\nernment itself.\nBased on a long and intensive study with the aid of the best ad-\nvice obtainable, I have concluded that a sweeping reorganization of the\nExecutive Branch is needed if the government is to keep up with the\nwith\ntimes and the needs of the people.\nI propose that we reduce the present twelve Cabinet Departments\nto eight.\nI propose that the Departments of State, Treasury, Defense and\nJustice remain, but that all the other departments be consolidated into\nfour: Human Resources, Community Development, Natural Resources,\nand Economic Development.\nLet us look at what these would be:\n-- First, a department dealing with the concerns of people --\nas individuals, as members of a family -- a department focused on\nhuman needs.\n-- Second, a department concerned with the community -- rural\ncommunities and urban -- and with all that it takes to make a commu-\nnity function as a community.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 17 -\nThe time has come to match our structure to our purposes - to\nlook with a fresh eye, and to organize the government by conscious,\ncomprehensive design to meet the new needs of a new era.\nOne hundred years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood on a battlefield\nand spoke of a government of the people, by the people and for the\npeople. Too often since then, we have become a nation of the Govern-\nment, by the Government, and for the Government.\nBy enacting these reforms, we can renew that principle that\nLincoln stated SO simply and so well.\nBy giving everyone's voice a chance to be heard, we will have\ngovernment that truly is of the people.\nBy creating more centers of meaningful power, more places\nwhere decisions that really count can be made, by giving more people\na chance to do something, we can have government that truly is by the\ncompletely\nAtc\nat\nRan\nAetting\nmay\npeople.\nAnd by replacing our obsolete Federal machi rv with a Min\nStructure\nmodern, functional design, we in Washington will at last be able to\nprovide government that truly is for the people.\na\ncompletely moderns functional\nsetting\nup\nCONFIDENTIAL\nsustem 1 government\nat the national\nlevel,\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 18 -\nI realize that what I am asking is that not only the Executive\nBranch in Washington but even this Congress will have to change by\ngiving up some of its power.\nChange is hard. But without change there can be no progress.\nAnd for each of us the question must be, not \"Will change cause me\ninconvenience? 11 but \"Will change bring the country progress? TT\nGiving up power is hard. But I would urge all of you, as leaders\nof this country, to remember that the truly revered leaders in world\nhistory are those who gave power to people, not those who took it away.\nAs we consider these reforms we will be acting, not for the next\ntwo years or the next ten years, but for the next hundred years.\nSo let us approach these six great goals with a sense, not only\nof this moment in history, but also of history itself.\nLet us act with the willingness to work together and the vision\nand the boldness and the courage of those great Americans who met in\nPhiladelphia almost 190 years ago to create a Constitution.\nLet us leave a heritage as they did - - not just for our children but\nfor millions yet unborn - of a nation where every American will have\na chance not only to live in peace and to enjoy prosperity and opportunity,\nbut to participate in a system of government where he knows not only his\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 19 -\nvotes but his ideas count a system of government which will provide\nthe means for America to reach heights of achievement undreamed of\nbefore.\nThose men who met in Philadelphia left a great heritage because\nthey had a vision -- not only of what the nation was, but of what it could\nbecome.\nAs I think of that vision, I recall that America was founded as the\nland of the open door -- as a haven for the oppressed, a land of opportunity,\na place of refuge and of hope.\nWhen the first settlers opened the door of America three and a\nhalf centuries ago, they came to escape persecution and to find opportunity\n- and they left wide the door of welcome for others to follow.\nWhen the thirteen colonies declared their independence almost two\ncenturies ago, they opened the door to a new vision of liberty and of human\nfulfillment -- not just for an elite, but for all.\nTo the generations that followed, America's was the open door\nthat beckoned millions from the old world to the new in search of a better\nlife, a freer life, a fuller life, in which by their own decisions they could\nshape their own destinies. They came to find opportunity for themselves and\nto ensure it for their children.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 20 -\nFor the black American, the Indian, the Mexican-American,\nand for those others in our land who have not had an equal chance, the\nnation at last has begun to confront the need to press open the door of\nfull and equal opportunity, and of human dignity.\nFor all Americans, with these changes I have proposed tonight we\ncan open the door to a new era of opportunity. We can open the door to\nfull and effective participation in the decisions that affect their lives.\nWe can open the door to a new partnership among governments at all\nlevels, and between those governments and the people themselves. And\nby so doing, we can open wide the doors of human fulfillment for millions\nof people here in America.\nIn the next few weeks I will spell out in greater detail the way\nI propose that we achieve these six great goals. I ask this Congress\nto be responsive. If it is, then the 92nd Congress, at the end of its\nterm, will be able to look back on a record more splendid than any\nin our history.\nThis can be the Congress that helped us end the longest war in\nthe nation's history, and end it in a way that will give us at last a\ngenuine chance for a full generation of peace.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - -- 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 21 -\nThis can be the Congress that helped achieve an expanding\neconomy, with full employment and without inflation - - and without\nthe deadly stimulus of war.\nThis can be the Congress that reformed a welfare system that\nhas robbed recipients of their dignity while it robbed States and cities\nof their resources.\nThis can be the Congress that pressed forward the rescue of\nour environment, and established for the next generation an enduring\nlegacy of parks for the people.\nThis can be the Congress that launched a new era in American\nmedicine, in which the quality of medical care was enhanced while\nthe costs were made less burdensome.\nBut above all, what this Congress can be remembered for is\nopening the way to a new American Revolution -- a peaceful revolution\nin which power was turned back to the people -- in which government at\nall levels was refreshed and renewed, and made truly responsive. This\ncan be a revolution as profound, as far-reaching, as exciting, as that\nfirst revolution almost 200 years ago -- and it can mean that just five\nyoung 1\nyears from now America will enter its third century as a 1 nation 4 new in\nspirit, with all the vigor and freshness with which it began its first century.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nMy colleagues in the Congress -- the'se are great goals, and\nthey can make the sessions of this Congress a great moment for\nAmerica. So let. us pledge together to go forward together --\nby achieving these goals to give America the foundation today for\na\nits greatness tomorrow and in all the years to come -- and\nin so doing to make this the greatest Congress in the history of\nthis great and good nation.\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n4177\nTHE PRESIDENT'S READING COPY\nSTATE OF THE UNION\nJanuary 22, 1971\nMr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress,\nour distinguished guests and my fellow Americans:\nThis 92nd Congress has a chance to be recorded as the greatest\nCongress in America's history.\n1. In these troubled years just past, America has been\ngoing through a long nightmare of war and division,\nof crime and inflation.\n(1) Even more deeply, we have gone through a long,\ndark night of the American spirit.\n1. But now that night is ending.\n2. Now we must let our spirits soar again.\n3. Now we are ready for the lift of a driving dream.\n94\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 2 -\n2. The people of this nation are eager to get on with\nthe quest for new greatness.\n(1) They see challenges, and they are prepared\nto meet those challenges.\n(2) It is for us here to open the doors that will\nset free again the real greatness of this nation --\nthe genius of the American people.\n1. How shall we meet this challenge?\n2. How can we truly open the doors, and set\nfree the full genius of our people?\n(1) The way in which the 92nd Congress answers\nthese questions will determine its place in history.\n1. More importantly, it can determine\nthis nation's place in history as we\nenter the third century of our independence.\n109\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 3 -\nTonight, I shall present to the Congress six great goals.\n1. I shall ask not simply for more new programs in\nthe old framework, but to change the framework\nitself -- to reform the entire structure of American\ngovernment so we can make it again fully responsive\nto the needs and the wishes of the American people.\n2. If we act boldly -- if we seize this moment and\nachieve these goals -- we can close the gap between\npromise and performance in American government,\nand bring together the resources of the nation and\nthe spirit of the people.\n3. In discussing these great goals, I am dealing tonight\nonly with matters on the domestic side of the nation's\nagenda.\n(1) I shall make a separate report to the Congress\nand the nation next month on developments in\nour foreign policy.\n/\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 4 -\nThe first of these six great goals is already before the\nCongress.\n1. I urge that the unfinished business of the 91st\nCongress be made the first priority of the 92nd.\n2. Over the next two weeks, I will call upon Congress\nto take action on more than 35 pieces of proposed\nlegislation on which action was not completed last\nyear.\n(1) The most important is welfare reform.\n1. The present welfare system has become a\nmonstrous, consuming outrage - - an outrage\nagainst the community, against the taxpayer,\nand particularly against the children it is\nsupposed to help.\n/\n2. We may honestly disagree on what to do about it.\n(1) But we can all agree that we must meet\nthe challenge not by pouring more money\ninto the old system, but by abolishing it\nand adopting a new one.\n132\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 5 -\n3. Let us place a floor under the income of\nevery family with children in America --\nand without those demeaning, soul-stifling\naffronts to human dignity that so blight the\nlives of welfare children today.\n4. But let us also establish an effective work\nincentive and an effective work requirement.\n(1) Let us provide the means by which\nmore can help themselves.\n(2) Let us generously help those who are\nnot able to help themselves.\n(3) But let us stop helping those who are\nable to help themselves but refuse to\ndo so.\n8.8\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 6 -\nThe second great goal is to achieve what Americans have not\nenjoyed since 1957 -- full prosperity in peacetime.\n1. The tide of inflation has turned.\n2. The rise in the cost of living, which had been\ngathering dangerous momentum in the late Sixties,\nwas reduced last year.\n3. Inflation will be further reduced this year.\n4. But as we have moved from runaway inflation\ntoward reasonable price stability and at the same\ntime have been moving from a wartime economy\nto a peacetime economy, we have paid a price in\nincreased unemployment.\n5. We should take no comfort from the fact that the\nlevel of unemployment in this transition from a\nwartime to a peacetime economy is lower than in\nany peacetime year of the 1960's.\n121\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 7 -\n(1) This is not good enough for the man who is\nunemployed in the Seventies.\n(2) We must do better for workers in peacetime --\nand we will do better.\n1. To achieve this, I will submit an expansionary\nbudget this year -- one that will help stimulate\nthe economy and thereby open up new job\nopportunities for millions of Americans.\n2. It will be a full employment budget, a budget\ndesigned to be in balance if the economy were\noperating at its peak potential.\n(1) By spending as if we were at full employment,\nwe will help to bring about full employment.\n3. I ask the Congress to accept these expansionary\npolicies -- to accept the concept of the full\nemployment budget.\n4. At the same time, I ask the Congress to cooperate\nin resisting expenditures that go beyond the limits\nof the full employment budget.\n137\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 8 -\n(1) For as we wage a campaign to bring\nabout a widely shared prosperity, we\nmust not re-ignite the fires of inflation\nand so undermine that prosperity.\n6. With the stimulus and the discipline of a full employment\nbudget; with the commitment of the independent Federal\nReserve System to provide fully for the monetary needs\nof a growing economy; and with a much greater effort\nby labor and management to make their wage and price\ndecisions in the light of the national interest and their\nown long-run best interests -- then for the worker,\nthe farmer, the consumer, and for Americans everywhere\nwe shall gain the goal of a new prosperity:\n(1) More jobs, more income and more profits,\nwithout inflation and without war.\n1. This is a great goal, and one that we\ncan achieve together.\n134\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 9 -\nThe third great goal is to continue the effort SO dramatically\nbegun this past year:\n1. To restore and enhance our natural environment.\n(1) Building on the foundation laid in the 37-point\nprogram I submitted to Congress last year, I\nwill propose a strong new set of initiatives to\nclean up our air and water, to combat noise,\nand to preserve and restore our surroundings.\n(2) I will propose programs to make better use of\nour land, and to encourage a balanced national\ngrowth -- growth that will revitalize our rural\nheartland and enhance the quality of life throughout\nAmerica\n1. And not only to meet today's needs but to\nanticipate those of tomorrow, I will put\nforward the most extensive program ever\nproposed by a President to expand the nation's\nparks, recreation areas and open spaces in\na way that truly brings parks to the people.\n(1) For only if we leave a legacy of parks\nwill the next generation have parks\n158\nto enjoy.\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 10 -\nAs a fourth great goal, I will offer a far-reaching set of\nproposals for improving America's health care and making\nit available more fairly to more people.\nI will propose:\n1. A program to insure that no American family will\nbe prevented from obtaining basic medical care by\ninability to pay.\n2. A major increase in and redirection of aid to medical\nschools, to greatly increase the number of doctors\nand other health personnel.\n3. Incentives to improve the delivery of health services,\nto get more medical care resources into those areas\nthat have not been adequately served, to make greater\nuse of medical assistants and to slow the alarming rise\nin the costs of medical care.\n4. New programs to encourage better preventive medicine,\nby attacking the causes of disease and injury, and by\nproviding incentives to doctors to keep people well\nrather than just to treat them when they are sick.\n149\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 11 -\nI will also ask appropriation of an extra $100 million to launch\nan intensive campaign to find a cure for cancer, and I will ask\nlater for whatever additional funds can effectively be used.\n1. The time has come when the same kind of concentrated\neffort that split the atom and took man to the moon\nshould be turned toward conquering this dread disease.\n(1) Surely these can be cured, and they must be cured.\n1. Let us make a total national commitment\nto achieve this goal.\n2. America has long been the wealthiest nation in the world.\n(1) Now it is time we became the healthiest nation\nin the world.\nThe fifth great goal is to strengthen and renew our State and\nlocal governments.\n1. As we approach our 200th anniversary in 1976, we\nremember that this nation launched itself as a loose\nconfederation of separate States, without a workable\ncentral government.\n147\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 12 -\n2. At that time, the mark of its leaders' vision was\nthat they quickly saw the need to balance the separate\npowers of the States with a government of central\npowers.\n(1) And so they gave us a Constitution of balanced\npowers, of unity with diversity -- and so clear\nwas their vision \\ that it survives as the oldest\nwritten Constitution still in force in the world today.\n3. For almost two centuries since -- and dramatically\nin the 1930's -- at those great turning-points when\nthe question has been between the States and the\nFederal Government, it has been resolved in favor\nof a stronger central government.\n(1) During this time the nation grew and prospered.\n(2) But one thing history tells us is that no great\nmovement goes in the same direction forever.\n1. Nations change, they adapt, or they slowly die.\n136\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 13 -\n4. The time has come to reverse the flow of power\nand resources from the States and communities to\nWashington, and start power and resources flowing\nback from Washington to the States and communities\nand more important, to the people, all across America.\n5. The time has come for a new partnership between the\nFederal Government and the States and localities --\na partnership in which we entrust the States and localities\nwith a larger share of the nation's responsibilities, and\nin which we share our Federal revenues with them so\nthey can meet those responsibilities.\n(1) To achieve this goal, I propose to the Congress\ntonight that we enact a plan of revenue sharing\nhistoric in scope and bold in concept.\n1. All across America today, States and cities\nare confronted with financial crisis.\n(1) Some already have been cutting back\non essential services -- for example,\njust recently San Diego and Cleveland\ncut back on trash collections;\n152\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 14 -\n(2) Most are caught between the prospects of\nbankruptcy on the one hand and adding to\nan already crushing tax burden on the other.\n2. As one indication of the rising costs of local\ngovernment, I discovered the other day that\nmy home town of Whittier, California -- with\na population of only 67,000 -- has a budget for\n1971 bigger than the entire Federal budget in 1791.\n6. Now the time has come to take a new direction, and\nonce again to introduce a new and more creative balance\nin our approach to government.\n(1) So let us put the money where the needs are.\n/\n(2) And let us put the power to spend it where the\npeople are.\n1. I propose that the Congress make a $16 billion\ninvestment in renewing State and local government --\n(1) with $5 billion of this in new and unrestricted\nfunds, to be used as the States and localities\nsee fit;\n149\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 15 -\n(2) And with the other $11 billion provided by\nallocating $1 billion of new funds and converting\none-third of the money going to the present\nnarrow-purpose aid programs into Federal\nrevenue sharing funds for six broad purposes --\n1. Urban development,\n2. Rural development,\n3. Education,\n4. Transportation,\n5. Job Training, and\n6. Law enforcement.\n(3) But with the States and localities making their\nown decisions on how it should be spent.\n(4) For the next fiscal year, this would increase\ntotal Federal aid to the States and localities\nmore than 25 percent over the present level.\n7. The revenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress\nwill include the safeguards against discrimination that\naccompany all other Federal funds allocated to the\nStates.\n113\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 16 -\n(1) Neither the President nor the Congress nor\nthe conscience of the nation can permit money\nwhich comes from all the people to be used in\na way which discriminates against some of the\npeople.\n8. The Federal Government will still have a large and\nvital role to play in achieving our national purposes.\n(1) Established functions that are clearly and\nessentially Federal in nature will still be\nperformed by the Federal Government.\n(2) New functions that need to be sponsored or\nperformed by the Federal Government -- such\nas those I have urged tonight in welfare and\nhealth -- will be added to the Federal / agenda.\n(3) Whenever it makes the best sense for us to act\nas a whole nation, the Federal Government will\nlead the way.\n1. But where State or local governments can better\ndo what needs to be done, let us see that they have\nthe resources to do it.\n147\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 17 -\n(4) Under this plan, the Federal Government will\nprovide the States and localities with more money\nand less interference -- and by cutting down the\ninterference the same amount of money will go\na lot further.\n9. Let us share our resources:\n(1) To rescue the States and localities from the\nbrink of financial / crisis.\n(2) And to give homeowners and wage earners a\nchance to escape from ever-higher property\ntaxes and sales taxes.\n10. Let us share our resources for two other reasons\nas well.\n(1) The first of these reasons has to do with government\nitself, and the second with the individual.\n1. Let's face it. Most Americans today are simply\nfed up with government at all levels.\n2. They will not -- and should not -- continue to\ntolerate the gap between promise and performance.\n128\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 18 -\n2. The fact is that we have made the Federal Government\nso strong it grows muscle-bound and the States and\nlocalities so weak they approach impotence.\n(1) If we put more power in more places, we can\nmake government more creative in more places.\n1. For that way we multiply the number of\npeople with the ability to make things happen -- -\nand we can open the way to a new burst of\ncreative energy throughout America.\n11. The final reason I urge this historic shift is much more\npersonal, for each and every one of us.\n(1) As everything seems to have grown bigger, and more\ncomplex; as the forces that shape our lives seem to\nhave grown more distant and more impersonal, a great\nfeeling of frustration has crept across the land.\n1. Whether it is the working man who feels neglected,\nthe black man who feels oppressed or the mother\nconcerned about her children, there has been a\ngrowing feeling that \"things are in the saddle, and\nride mankind.\"\n(2) Millions of frustrated young Americans today are crying\nout -- asking not what will government do for me, but\nwhat can I do, how can I contribute, how can I matter ?\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 19 -\n(3) Let us answer them.\n1.\nLet us say to them and to all Americans:\n(1) \"We hear you and we will give you a chance.\n(2) \"We are going to give you a new chance to\nhave more to say about the decisions that\naffect your future -- to participate in government -\nbecause we are going to provide \\ more centers of\npower where what you do can make a difference\nthat you can see and feel in your own life and\nthe life of your whole community.\"\n12. The further away government is from people, the stronger\ngovernment becomes and the weaker people become.\n(1) And a nation with a strong government and a\nweak people is an empty shell.\n(2) I reject the patronizing idea that government in\nWashington, D. C., is inevitably more wise, more\nhonest and more efficient than government at the\nlocal or State level.\n137\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 20 -\n1. The honesty and efficiency of government\ndepends on people.\n2. Government at all levels has good people\nand bad people.\n3. And the way to get more good people into\ngovernment is to give them more opportunity\nto do good things.\n(3) The idea that a bureaucratic elite in Washington\nknows best what is best for people everywhere and\n65\nthat you cannot trust local government is really a\ncontention that you cannot trust people to govern\nthemselves.\n1. This notion is completely foreign to the\nAmerican experience.\n(1) Local government is the government closest\nto the people and most responsive to the\nindividual person;\n(2) It is people's government in a far more\nintimate way than the government in\nWashington can ever be.\n117\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 21 -\n13. People came to America because they wanted\nto determine their own future rather than to\nlive in a country where others determined their\nfuture for them.\n(1) What this change means is that once\nagain we are placing our trust in people.\n1. I have faith in people.\n2. I trust the judgment of people.\n3. Let us give the people a chance,\na bigger voice in deciding for\nthemselves those questions that\nso greatly affect their lives.\n74\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 22 -\nThe sixth great goal is a complete reform of the Federal\nGovernment itself.\n1. Based on a long and intensive study with the aid of\nthe best advice obtainable, I have concluded that a\nsweeping reorganization of the Executive Branch is\nneeded if the government is to keep up with the times\nand with the needs of the people.\n(1) I propose that we reduce the present twelve\nCabinet Departments to eight.\n(2) I propose that the Departments of State, Treasury,\nDefense and Justice remain, but that all the other\ndepartments be consolidated into four:\n1. Human Resources,\n2. Community Development,\n3. Natural Resources, and\n4. Economic Development.\n1 0 /\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 23 -\n2. Let us look at what these would be:\n(1) First, a department dealing with the concerns\nof people -- as individuals, as members of a\nfamily -- a department focused on human needs.\n(2) Second, a department concerned with the community --\nrural communities and urban -- and with all that\nit takes to make a community function as a\ncommunity.\n(3) Third, a department concerned with our physical\nenvironment, and with the preservation and balanced\nuse of those great natural resources on which our\nnation depends.\n(4) And fourth, a department concerned with our prosperity\n-- with our jobs, our businesses, and those many\nactivities that keep our economy running smoothly\nand well.\n3. Under this plan, rather than dividing up our departments\nby narrow subjects, we would organize them around the\ngreat purposes of government.\n127\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 24 -\n(1) Rather than scattering responsibility by adding\nnew levels of bureaucracy, we would focus and\nconcentrate the responsibility for getting problems\nsolved.\n(2) With these four departments, when we have a\nproblem we will know where to go -- and the\ndepartment will have the authority and the resources\nto do something about it.\n4. Over the years we have added departments and created\nagencies, each to serve a new constituency or to handle\na particular task -- and these have grown and multiplied\nin what has become a hopeless confusion of form and\nfunction.\n5. The time has come to match our structure to our purposes --\nto look with a fresh eye, and to organize the government\nby conscious, comprehensive design to meet the new needs\nof a new era.\n(1) One hundred years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood on\na battlefield and spoke of a government of the people,\nby the people and for the people.\n,40\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 25 -\n1. Too often since then, we have become a\nnation of the Government, by the Government,\nand for the Government.\n(2) By enacting these reforms, we can renew that\nprinciple that Lincoln stated so simply and so well.\n(3) By giving everyone's voice a chance to be heard,\nwe will have government that truly is of the people.\n(4) By creating more centers of meaningful power,\nmore places where decisions that really count can\nbe made, by giving more people a chance to do\nsomething, we can have government that truly is\nby the people.\n(5) And by setting up a completely modern, functional\n/\nsystem of government at the national level, we in\nWashington will at last be able to provide government\nthat truly is for the people.\n123\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 26 -\nI realize that what I am asking is that not only the Executive\nBranch in Washington but even this Congress will have to change\nby giving up some of its power.\n1. Change is hard.\n(1) But without change there can be no progress.\n(2) And for each of us the question must be, not\n\"Will change cause me inconvenience?\" but\n\"Will change bring the country progress?\n2. Giving up power is hard.\n(1) But I would urge all of you, as leaders of this\ncountry, to remember that the truly revered\nleaders in world history are those who gave power\nto people, not those who took it away.\n/\n3. As we consider these reforms we will be acting,\nnot for the next two years or the next ten years,\nbut for the next hundred years.\n(1) So let us. approach these six great goals with\na sense, not only of this moment in history,\nbut also of history itself.\n144\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 27 -\n1. Let us act with the willingness to work\ntogether and the vision and the boldness\nand the courage of those great Americans\nwho met in Philadelphia almost 190 years\nago to create a Constitution.\n2. Let us leave a heritage as they did -- not\njust for our children but for millions yet\nunborn -- of a nation where every American\nwill have a chance not only to live in peace\nand to enjoy prosperity and opportunity, but\nto participate in a system of government\nwhere he knows not only his votes but his ideas\ncount -- a system of government which will\nprovide the means for America to reach heights\nof achievement undreamed of before.\nThose men who met in Philadelphia left a great heritage because\nthey had a vision -- not only of what the nation was, but of what\nit could become.\n1. As I think of that vision, I recall that America was\nfounded as the land of the open door -- as a haven for\nthe oppressed, a land of opportunity, a place of refuge\nand of hope.\n176\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 28 -\n(1) When the first settlers opened the door of America\nthree and a half centuries ago, they came to escape\npersecution and to find opportunity -- and they left WIDE\nthe door of welcome for others to follow.\n(2) When the thirteen colonies declared their independence\nalmost two centuries ago, they opened the door to\na new vision of liberty and of human fulfillment --\nnot just for an elite, but for all.\n(3) To the generations that followed, America's was\nthe open door that beckoned millions from the old\nworld to the new in search of a better life, a freer\n/\nlife, a fuller life, in which by their own decisions\nthey could shape their own destinies.\n1. For the black American, the Indian, the\nMexican-American, and for those others in\nour land who have not had an equal chance,\nthe nation at last has begun to confront the\nneed to press open the door of full and equal\nopportunity, and of human dignity.\n159\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 29 -\n2. For all Americans, with these changes\nI have proposed tonight we can open the\ndoor to a new era of opportunity.\n(1) We can open the door to full and effective\nparticipation in the decisions that affect\ntheir lives.\n(2) We can open the door to a new partnership\namong governments at all levels, and between\nthose governments and the people themselves.\n3. And by so doing, we can open wide the doors\nof human fulfillment for millions of people\nhere in America.\nIn the next few weeks, I will spell out in greater detail the way\nI propose that we achieve these six great goals.\n1. I ask this Congress to be responsive.\n(1) If it is, then the 92nd Congress, at the end of\nits term, will be able to look back on a record\nmore splendid than any in our history.\n139\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 30 -\n1. This can be the Congress that helped us end\nthe longest war in the nation's history, and\nend it in a way that will give us at last a\ngenuine chance for a full generation of peace.\n2. This can be the Congress that helped achieve\nan expanding economy, with full employment\nand without inflation -- and without the deadly\nstimulus of war.\n3. This can be the Congress that reformed a\nwelfare system that has robbed recipients of\ntheir dignity while it robbed States and cities\nof their resources. 87\n4. This can be the Congress that pressed forward\n/\nthe rescue of our environment, and established\nfor the next generation an enduring legacy\nof parks for the people.\n5. This can be the Congress that launched a new\nera in American medicine, in which the quality\nof medical care was enhanced while the costs\nwere made less burdensome.\n143\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 31 -\n6. But above all, what this Congress can be\nremembered for is opening the way to a\nnew American Revolution --\n(1) a peaceful revolution in which power\nwas turned back to the people --\n(2) in which government at all levels was\nrefreshed and renewed, and made truly\nresponsive.\n7. This can be a revolution as profound, as\nfar-reaching, as exciting, as that first\nrevolution almost 200 years ago -- and\nit can mean that just five years from now\nAmerica will enter its third century as a\nyoung nation, new in spirit, with all the\nvigor and freshness with which it began\nits first century.\n10\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 32 -\nMy colleagues in the Congress -- these are great goals, and\nthey can make the sessions of this Congress a great moment\nfor America.\n1. So let us pledge together to go forward together - -\nby achieving these goals to give America the foundation\ntoday for a new greatness tomorrow and in all the\nyears to come -- and in so doing to make this the\ngreatest Congress in the history of this great and\ngood nation.\n###########\n73\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nDETERMINED TO BE AN\nADMINISTRATIVE MARKING\nE.O. 12065, Section 6-102\nBy\nMH\nCONFIDENTIAL\nNARS, Date 9/2/81\nSTATE OF THE UNION\nFROM: RAY PRICE\nFor the insert on page 13, this might work pretty well.\n(I've tried graphic images, but with things in the saddle\nwe come up against the mixed-metaphor problem.)\nAs everything seems to have grown bigger, and\nmore complex; as the forces that shape our lives seem to\nim\nhave grown more distant and more personal, a great\nfeeling of frustration has crept across the land.\nWhether it is the working man who feels neglected,\nthe black man who feels oppressed or the mother concerned\nabout her children, there has been a growing feeling that\n\"things are in the saddle, and ride mankind. \"\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 18 -\n2. The fact is that we have made the Federal\nGovernment so strong it grows muscle-bound\nand the States and localities so weak they\napproach impotence.\n(1) If we put more power in more places,\nwe can make government more creative\nin more places.\n1. For that way we multiply the number\nof people with the ability to make things\nhappen -- and we can open the way to\na new burst of creative energy throughout\nAmerica.\n11. The final reason I urge this historic shift is much more\npersonal, for each and every one of us.\nB\n(1) Millions of frustrated young Americans today are\ncrying out -- asking not what will government do\nfor me, but what can I do, how can I contribute,\nhow can I matter?\n- 13 -\n4. The time has come to reverse the flow of power\nand resources from the States and communities to\nWashington, and start power and resources flowing\nback from Washington to the States and communities\nmore\nand most important, to the people, all across America.\n5. The time has come for a new partnership between the\nFederal Government and the States and localities in A\nwhich we give responsibility to the States and localities\nand also the resources to meet that responsibility.\n(1) To achieve this goal, I propose to the Congress\ntonight that we enact a plan of revenue sharing\nhistoric in scope and bold in concept.\n1. All across America today, States and cities\nare confronted with / a financial crisis.\n(1) Some already have been cutting back\non essential services -- for example,\njust recently San Diego and Cleveland\ncut back on trash collections;\nLos\nAngeles had to reduce its force of water and\npower workers.\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n, 1\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSTATE OF THE UNION\nFROM: RAY PRICE\nA possible alternative formulation for the line on\npage 9 of the 11th draft:\nThe time has come for a new partnership\nbetween the Federal Government and the States\nand localities -- a partnership in which we entrust\nthe States and localities with a larger share of the\nnation's responsibilities, and in which we share\nFederal\nour revenues with them so they can meet those\n\"\nresponsibilities.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nDETERMINED TO BE AN\nADMINISTRATIVE MARKING\nE.O. 12065, Section 6-102\nBy MH NARS, Date 9/2/81\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 19 -\n11\n(2) Let us answer them.\nto and to all american:\n1. Let us say/we hear you and we will give\nyou a chance.\n2. We are going to give you a new chance to\nhave more to say about the decisions that\naffect your future -- to participate in government -- -\nbecause we are going to provide more centers of\npower where what you do can make a difference\nthat you can see and feel in your own life and\nthe life of your whole community. 11\n12. The further away government is from people, the stronger\ngovernment becomes and the weaker people become.\n(1) And a nation with a strong government and a\nweak people is an empty shell.\n(2) I reject the patronizing idea that government in\nWashington, D. C., is inevitably more wise, more\nhonest and more efficient than government at the\nlocal or State level.\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nBMW\nDETERMINED TO BE AN\nCONFIDENTIAL\nADMINISTRATIVE MARKING\nE.O. 12065, Section 6-102\nBy\nMH\nNARS, Date 9/2/81\nSTATE OF THE UNION\n11th Draft\nJanuary 22, 1971\nMr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our\ndistinguished guests and my fellow Americans:\nThis 92nd Congress has a chance to be recorded as the greatest\nCongress in America's history.\nIn these troubled years just past, America has been going\nthrough a long nightmare of war and division, of crime and infla-\ntion. Even more deeply, we have gone through a long, dark night of\nthe American spirit. But now that night is ending. Now we must\nlet our spirits soar again. Now we are ready for the lift of a driving\ndream.\nThe people of this nation are eager to get on with the quest for\nnew greatness. They see challenges, and they are prepared to meet\nthose challenges. It is for us here to open the doors that will set\nfree again the real greatness of this nation -- the genius of the\nAmerican people.\nHow shall we meet this challenge ? How can we truly open the\ndoors, and set free the full genius of our people?\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 2 -\nThe way in which the 92nd Congress answers these questions\nwill determine its place in history. More importantly, it can deter-\nmine this nation's place in history as we enter the third century of\nour independence.\nTonight, I shall present to the Congress six great goals. I\nshall ask not simply for more new programs in the old framework,\nbut to change the framework itself -- - - to reform the entire structure\nof American government so we can make it again fully responsive to\nthe needs and the wishes of the American people.\nIf we act boldly -- if we seize this moment and achieve these\ngoals, we can close the gap between promise and performance in\nAmerican government, and bring together the resources of the nation\nand the spirit of the people.\nIn discussing these great goals, I am dealing tonight only with\nmatters on the domestic side of the nation's agenda. I shall make\na separate report to the Congress and the nation next month on\ndevelopments in our foreign policy.\nThe first of these six great goals is already before the Con-\ngress.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 3 -\nI urge that the unfinished business of the 91st Congress be\nmade the first priority of the 92nd.\nCongress to take action on\nOver the next two weeks, I will call upon/ more than 35 pieces\nof proposed legislation on which action was not completed last year.\nThe most important is welfare reform.\nThe present welfare system has become a monstrous, consuming\noutrage -- an outrage against the community, against the taxpayer, and\nparticularly against the children it is supposed to help.\nWe may honestly disagree on what to do about it. But we can\nall agree that we must meet the challenge not by pouring more money\ninto the old system, but by abolishing it and adopting a new one.\nLet us place a floor under the income of every family with children\nin America -- and without those demeaning, soul-stifling affronts to\nhuman dignity that SO blight the lives of welfare children today. But\nlet us also establish an effective work incentive and an effective work\nrequirement. Let us provide the means by which more can help them-\nselves. Let us generously help those who are not able to help themselves.\nBut let us stop helping those who are able to help themselves but refuse\nto do so.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU are 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 4 -\nThe second great goal is to achieve what Americans have not\nenjoyed since 1957 -- full prosperity in peacetime.\nThe tide of inflation has turned. The rise in the cost of living,\nwhich had been gathering dangerous momentum in the late Sixties,\nwas reduced last year. Inflation will be further reduced this year.\nBut as we have made the move from runaway inflation toward\nreasonable price stability and as at the same time we have made\nthe move from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy, we have\npaid a price in unemployment. One million, nine hundred thousand\njobs came to an end in our armed forces and defense plants in this\npast two years.\nWe should take no comfort from the fact that the level of unem-\nployment in this transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy\nis lower than in any peacetime year of the 1960s.\nThis is not good enough for the man who is unemployed in the\nSeventies. We must do better for workers in peacetime and we will\ndo better.\nTo achieve this, I will submit an expansionary budget this year\none that will help stimulate the economy and thereby open up new\njob opportunities for millions of Americans.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 5 -\nIt will be a full employment budget, a budget designed to be\nin balance if the economy were operating at its peak potential. By\nspending as if we were at full employment, we will help to bring\nabout full employment.\nI ask the Congress to accept these expansionary policies -- to\naccept the concept of the full employment budget.\nAt the same time, I ask the Congress to cooperate in resisting\nexpenditures that go beyond the limits of the full employment budget.\nFor as we wage a campaign to bring about a widely shared prosperity,\nwe must not re-ignite the fires of inflation and SO undermine that\nprosperity.\nWith the stimulus and the discipline of a full employment budget;\nwith the commitment of the independent Federal Reserve System to\nprovide fully for the monetary needs of a growing economy; and with\na much greater effort by labor and management to make their wage\nand price decisions in the light of the national interest and their own\nlong-run best interests -- then for the worker, the farmer, the\nconsumer, and for Americans everywhere we shall gain the goal of\na new prosperity: more jobs, more income and more profits, without\ninflation and without war.\nThis is a great goal, and one that we can achieve together.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 6 -\nThe third great goal is to continue the effort SO dramatically\nbegun this past year: to restore and enhance our natural environ-\nment.\nBuilding on the foundation laid in the 37-point program I sub-\nmitted to Congress last year, I will propose a strong new set of\ninitiatives to clean up our air and water, to combat noise, and to\npreserve and restore our surroundings.\nI will have programs to make better use of our land, and to\nencourage a balanced national growth that will enhance the quality\nof life in both urban and rural America.\nAnd not only to meet today's needs but to anticipate those of\ntomorrow, I will put forward the most extensive program ever\nproposed by a President to expand the nation's parks, park recrea-\ntion areas and open spaces in a way that truly brings parks to the\npeople. For only if we leave a legacy of parks will the next\ngeneration have parks to enjoy.\nAs a fourth great goal, I will offer a far-reaching set of pro-\nposals for improving America's health care and making it available\nmore fairly to more people.\nGONF IDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nGONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 7 -\nI will propose:\n-- A program to insure that no American family will\nbe prevented from obtaining basic medical care by inability\nto pay.\n-- A major increase in and redirection of aid to medical\nschools, to greatly increase the number of doctors and other\nhealth personnel.\n- - New incentives to encourage better preventive medi-\ncine, greater use of nurses and medical assistants and a\nfairer distribution of medical services -- SO that care is\navailable where sick people are rather than being concen-\ntrated primarily where rich people are.\nI will also ask appropriation of an extra $100 million to launch an\nintensive campaign to find a cure for cancer, and I will ask later for\nwhat additional funds may become necessary. The time has come\nwhen the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took\nman to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread dis- -\nease.\nSurely these can be cured, and they must be cured. Let us\nmake a total national commitment to do so.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 8 -\nAmerica has long been the wealthiest nation in the world. Now\nit is time we became the healthiest nation in the world.\nThe fifth great goal is to strengthen and renew our State and\nlocal governments.\nAs we approach our 200th anniversary in 1976, we remember\nthat this nation launched itself as a loose confederation of separate\nStates, without a workable central government. At that time, the\nmark of its leaders' vision was that they quickly saw the need to\nbalance the separate powers of the States with a government of\ncentral powers.\nAnd so they gave us a Constitution of balanced powers, of unity\nwith diversity -- and SO clear was their vision that it survives as\nthe oldest written Constitution still in force in the world today.\nFor almost two centuries since -- and dramatically in the 1930s\n-- at those great turning -points when the question has been between\nthe States and the Federal Government, it has been resolved in favor\nof a stronger central government.\nDuring this time the nation grew and prospered. But one thing\nhistory tells us is that no great movement goes in the same direction\nforever. Nations change, they adapt, or they slowly die.\nGONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 9 -\nThe time has come to reverse the flow of power and resources\nfrom the States and communities to Washington, and start power and\nresources flowing back from Washington to the Statesand communities\nmore\nand/most important, to the people, all across America.\nThe time has come for a new partnership between the Federal\nGovernment and the States and localities.\nINSERT\nI propose to the Congress tonight that we enact a plan of revenue\nsharing historic in scope and bold in concept.\nAll across America today, States and cities are confronted with\nfa\nfinancial crisis. Some already have been cutting back on essential\nservices -- for example, just recently San Diego and Cleveland cut\nback on trash collections;\nLos Angeles had to reduce its force of water\nhald\nand power workers.\nMost are caught between the prospects of bank-\nruptcy on the one hand and adding to an already crushing tax burden\non the other.\nAs one indication of the rising costs of local government, I dis-\ncovered the other day that my home town of Whittier, California - - with\na population of only 67,000 -- has a budget for 1971 bigger than the entire\nFederal budget in 1791.\nNow the time has come to take a new direction, and once again to\nintroduce a new and more creative balance in our approach to government.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 10 -\nSo let us put the money where the needs are. And let us put\nthe power to spend it where the people are.\nI propose that the Congress make a $16 billion investment in\nrenewing State and local government -- with $5 billion of this in new\nand unrestricted funds, to be used as the States and localities see\nfit, and with the other $11 billion provided by converting one - third\nof the money going to the present narrow-purpose aid programs into\nFederal revenue sharing funds for six broad purposes -- urban\ndevelopment, rural development, education, transportation, man-\npower training and law enforcement - but with the States and localities\nmaking their own local decisions on how it should be spent.\nInsul The revenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress will\ninclude the safeguards against discrimination that accompany all\nother Federal funds allocated to the States, Neither the President\nnor the Congress nor the conscience of the nation can permit money\nwhich comes from all the people to be used in a way which discrimi-\nnates against some of the people.\nThe Federal Government will still have a large and vital role\nto play in achieving our national purposes. Established functions\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 11 -\nthat are clearly and essentially Federal in nature will still be per-\nformed by the Federal Government. New functions that need to be\nsponsored or performed by the Federal Government -- such as\nthose I have urged tonight in welfare and health -- - - will be added to\nthe Federal agenda. Whenever it makes the best sense for us to\nact as a whole nation, the Federal Government will lead the way.\nBut where State or local governments can better do what needs to\nbe done, let us see that they have the resources to do it.\nUnder this plan, the Federal Government will provide the\nStates and localities with more money and less interference -- and\nby cutting down the interference the same amount of money will go\na lot further.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 12 -\nLet us share our resources:\n-- to rescue the States and localities from the brink of finan-\ncial crisis\n-- and to give homeowners and wage earners a chance to\nescape from ever-higher property taxes and sales taxes.\nLet us share our resources for two other reasons as well.\nThe first of these reasons has to do with government itself, and\nthe second with the individual.\nLet's face it. Most Americans today are simply fed up with\ngovernment at all levels.\nThe fact is that we have made the Federal Government so strong\nit grows muscle-bound and the States and localities SO weak they\napproach impotence.\nIf we put more power in more places, we can make government\nmore creative in more places. For that way we multiply the number\nof people with the ability to make things happen -- and we can open\nthe way to a new burst of creative energy throughout America.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 13 -\nThe final reason I urge this historic shift is much more per-\nsonál, for each and every one of us.\nMillions of frustrated young Americans today are crying out - -\nasking not what will government do for me, but what can I do, how\ncan I contribute, how can I matter?\nto Them and to all Americans\nLet us answer them. Let us say we hear you and we will give\nyou a chance. We are going to give you a new chance to have more\nto say about the decisions that affect your future -- to participate in\ngovernment - - because we are going to provide more centers of\npower where what you do can make a difference that you can see and\nfeel in your own life and the life of your whole community.\nThe further away government is from people, the stronger\ngovernment becomes and the weaker people become. And a nation\nwith a strong government and a weak people is an empty shell.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 14 -\nI reject the patronizing idea that government in Washington, D. C.\nis inevitably more wise, more honest and more efficient than govern-\nment at the local or State level. The honesty and efficiency of govern-\nment depends on people. Government at all levels has good people and\nbad people. And the way to get more good people into governme nt is to\ngive them more freedom to do good things.\nThe idea that a bureaucratic elite in Washington knows best what\nis best for people everywhere and that you cannot trust local govern-\nment is really a contention that you cannot trust people to govern them-\nselves. This notion is completely foreign to the American experience.\nLocal government is the government closest to the people and most\nresponsive to the individual person; it is people's government in a far\nmore intimate way than the government in Washington can ever be.\nPeople came to America because they wanted to determine their\nown future rather than to live in a country where others determined their\nfuture for them.\nWhat this change means is that once again we are placing our\ntrust in people.\nI have faith in people. I trust the judgment of people. Let us give\nthe people a chance, a bigger voice in deciding for themselves those\nquestions that so greatly affect their lives.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 15 -\nThe sixth great goal is a complete reform of the Federal Gov-\nernment itself.\nBased on a long and intensive study with the aid of the best ad-\nvice obtainable, I have concluded that a sweeping reorganization of the\nExecutive Branch is needed if the government is to keep up with the\ntimes and the needs of the people.\nI propose that we reduce the present twelve Cabinet Departments\nto eight.\nI propose that the Departments of State, Treasury, Defense and\nJustice remain, but that all the other departments be consolidated into\nfour: Human Resources, Community Development, Natural Resources,\nand Economic Development.\nLet us look at what these would be:\n-- First, a department dealing with the concerns of people --\nas individuals, as members of a family -- a department focused on\nhuman needs.\n- - Second, a department concerned with the community -- rural\ncommunities and urban -- and with all that it takes to make a commu-\nnity function as a community.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 16 -\n-- Third, a department concerned with our physical\nenvironment, and with the preservation and balanced use of\nthose great natural resources on which our nation depends.\n- - And fourth, a department concerned with our prosperity\n-- with our jobs, our businesses, and those many activities\nthat keep our economy running smoothly and well.\nUnder this plan, rather than dividing up our departments by\nnarrow subjects, we would organize them around the great purposes\nof government. Rather than scattering responsibility by adding new\nlevels of bureaucracy, we would focus and concentrate the responsi-\nbility for getting problems solved.\nWith these four departments, when we have a problem we will\nknow where to go -- and the department will have the authority and\nthe resources to do something about it.\nOver the years we have added departments and created agencies,\neach to serve a new constituency or to handle a particular task - - and\nthese have grown and multiplied in what has become a hopeless confusion\nof form and function.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 17 -\nThe time has come to match our structure to our purposes -- to\nlook with a fresh eye, and to organize the government by conscious,\ncomprehensive design to meet the new needs of a new era.\nOne hundred years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood on a battlefield\nand spoke of a government of the people, by the people and for the\npeople. Too often since then, we have become a nation of the Govern-\nment, by the Government, and for the Government.\nBy enacting these reforms, we can renew that principle that\nLincoln stated SO simply and so well.\nBy giving everyone's voice a chance to be heard, we will have\ngovernment that truly is of the people.\nBy creating more centers of meaningful power, more places\nwhere decisions that really count can be made, by giving more people\na chance to do something, we can have government that truly is by the\npeople.\nAnd by replacing our obsolete Federal machinery with a new,\nmodern, functional design, we in Washington will at last be able to\nprovide government that truly is for the people.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 18 -\nI realize that what I am asking is that not only the Executive\nBranch in Washington but even this Congress will have to change by\ngiving up some of its power.\nChange is hard. But without change there can be no progress.\nAnd for each of us the question must be, not \"Will change cause me\ninconvenience? 11 but \"Will change bring the country progress? \"\nGiving up power is hard. But I would urge all of you, as leaders\nof this country, to remember that the truly revered leaders in world\nhistory are those who gave power to people, not those who took it away.\nAs we consider these reforms we will be acting, not for the next\ntwo years or the next ten years, but for the next hundred years.\nSo let us approach these six great goals with a sense, not only\nof this moment in history, but also of history itself.\nLet us act with the willingness to work together and the vision\nand the boldness and the courage of those great Americans who met in\nPhiladelphia almost 190 years ago to create a Constitution.\nLet us leave a heritage as they did - - not just for our children but\nfor millions yet unborn -- of a nation where every American will have\na chance not only to live in peace and to enjoy prosperity and opportunity,\nbut to participate in a system of government where he knows not only his\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 19 -\nvotes but his ideas count -- a system of government which will provide\nthe means for America to reach heights of achievement undreamed of\nbefore.\nThose men who met in Philadelphia left a great heritage because\nthey had a vision -- - -- not only of what the nation was, but of what it could\nbecome.\nAs I think of that vision, I recall that America was founded as the\nland of the open door -- as a haven for the oppressed, a land of opportunity,\na place of refuge and of hope.\nWhen the first settlers opened the door of America three and a\nhalf centuries ago, they came to escape persecution and to find opportunity\nand they left wide the door of welcome for others to follow.\nWhen the thirteen colonies declared their independence almost two\ncenturies ago, they opened the door to a new vision of liberty and of human\nfulfillment -- not just for an elite, but for all.\nTo the generations that followed, America's was the open door\nthat beckoned millions from the old world to the new in search of a better\nlife, a freer life, a fuller life, in which by their own decisions they could\nshape their own destinies. They came to find opportunity for themselves and\nto ensure it for their children.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU -- 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 20 -\nFor the black American, the Indian, the Mexican-American,\nand for those others in our land who have not had an equal chance, the\nnation at last has begun to confront the need to press open the door of\nfull and equal opportunity, and of human dignity.\nFor all Americans, with these changes I have proposed tonight we\ncan open the door to a new era of opportunity. We can open the door to\nfull and effective participation in the decisions that affect their lives.\nWe can open the door to a new partnership among governments at all\nlevels, and between those governments and the people themselves. And\nby SO doing, we can open wide the doors of human fulfillment for millions\nof people here in America.\nIn the next few weeks I will spell out in greater detail the way\nI propose that we achieve these six great goals. I ask this Congress\nto be responsive. If it is, then the 92nd Congress, at the end of its\nterm, will be able to look back on a record more splendid than any\nin our history.\nThis can be the Congress that helped us end the longest war in\nthe nation's history, and end it in a way that will give us at last a\ngenuine chance for a full generation of peace.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 21 -\nThis can be the Congress that helped achieve an expanding\neconomy, with full employment and without inflation -- and without\nthe deadly stimulus of war.\nThis can be the Congress that reformed a welfare system that\nhas robbed recipients of their dignity while it robbed States and cities\nof their resources.\nThis can be the Congress that pressed forward the rescue of\nour environment, and established for the next generation an enduring\nlegacy of parks for the people.\nThis can be the Congress that launched a new era in American\nmedicine, in which the quality of medical care was enhanced while\nthe costs were made less burdensome.\nBut above all, what this Congress can be remembered for is\nopening the way to a new American Revolution -- a peaceful revolution\nin which power was turned back to the people -- in which government at\nall levels was refreshed and renewed, and made truly responsive. This\ncan be a revolution as profound, as far-reaching, as exciting, as that\nfirst revolution almost 200 years ago -- and it can mean that just five\nyears from now America will enter its third century as a nation new in\nspirit, with all the vigor and freshness with which it began its first century.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 11th Draft\n1/22/71\n- 22 -\nMy colleagues in the Congress -- these are great goals, and\nthey can make the sessions of this Congress a great moment for\nAmerica. So let us pledge together to go forward together -- to\nmake this the greatest Congress in the history of this great and good\nnation, and by achieving these goals to give America the foundation\ntoday for its greatness tomorrow and in all the years to come.\n####\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\n- 15 -\n(2) And with the other $11 billion provided by\nallocating $1 billion of new funds and converting\none -third of the money going to the present\nnarrow-purpose aid programs into Federal\nrevenue sharing funds for six broad purposes -- -\n1. Urban development,\n2. Rural development,\n3. Education,\n4. Transportation,\n5. Job Training, and\n6. Law enforcement.\n(3) But with the States and localities making their\nown decisions on how it should be spent.\n(4) For the next fiscal year, this would increase\ntotal Federal aid to the States and localities\nmore than 25 percent over the present level.\n7. The revenue sharing proposals I send to the Congress will\nbe embodied in a group of bills defining these general and\nspecial revenue sharing proposals.\n(1)\nAll will include the safeguards against discrimination\nthat accompany all other Federal funds allocated to\nthe States.\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nDETERMINED TO BE AN\nADMINISTRATIVE MARKING\nE.O. 12065, Section 6-102\nCONFIDENTIAL\nBy\nMH\nNARS, Date 9/2/81\n(Safire/Huebner/Koch/Price) RP\n8th Draft\nJanuary 20, 1971\nSTATE OF THE UNION\nMr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our\ndistinguished guests and my fellow Americans:\nI take a very special pleasure this evening in welcoming the\nmembers of the 92nd Congress -- both those who are returning, and\nthose newly elected. [Albert ad lib]\nThis 92nd Congress has a chance to be recorded as the greatest\nCongress in America's history.\nIn the past two years, we have been preparing the way for turning\nAmerica in a new and dramatically promising direction.\nThe war in Vietnam at last is ending -- and ending in a way that\ngives Americans a chance to enjoy what we have not had in this century\n-- a full generation of peace.\nWe have made significant progress in restoring peace in America.\nThe rate of increase in crime has been slowed, and here in our\nCapital City it has been reversed. With the help of the legislation passed\nin the final days of the last Congress, we now have the weapons to wage\na winning war on crime.\nCONFIDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum\nCONFIDENTIAL\nSU - 8th Draft\n1/20/71\n- 2 -\nWe are effectively slowing down the worst inflation in more than\n20 years.\nWe have moved aggressively to restore and protect our natural\nenvironment -- to undo the damage that has been done, and to replenish\nthis good earth.\nIn the difficult field of race relations, there has been progress of\nhistoric dimension. Despite the frightening predictions of mass defiance\nof the law, in this past year we have seen a virtual ending of the dual\nschool system in America. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of public-\nspirited leaders in the South, both black and white, we saw it end with\nonly minimum disruption and without violence.\nThese accomplishments are significant. But they are only a\nbeginning. The people of this nation are now eager to get on with the\nquest for new greatness which has always characterized\nAmericans and which has kept this nation free. They see challenges\nthroughout the land, and they are prepared to meet those challenges.\nIt is for us here to open the doors that will\n, set free again the real greatness of this\nnation -- the genius of the American people.\nCONF IDENTIAL\nReproduced at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum"
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