State of the Union AddressesKennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald)
History
State of the Union Addresses
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald)
Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
(1) First, an increase in postal rates, to end the postal deficit;
(2) Second, passage of the tax reforms previously urged, to remove
unwarranted tax preferences, and to apply to dividends and to interest the
same withholding requirements we have long applied to wages; and
(3) Third, extension of the present excise and corporation tax rates,
except for those changes--which will be recommended in a message--affecting
transportation.
III. GETTING AMERICA MOVING
But a stronger nation and economy require more than a balanced Budget. They
require progress in those programs that spur our growth and fortify our
strength.
CITIES
A strong America depends on its cities--America's glory, and sometimes
America's shame. To substitute sunlight for congestion and progress for
decay, we have stepped up existing urban renewal and housing programs, and
launched new ones--redoubled the attack on water pollution--speeded aid to
airports, hospitals, highways, and our declining mass transit systems--and
secured new weapons to combat organized crime, racketeering, and youth
delinquency, assisted by the coordinated and hard-hitting efforts of our
investigative services: the FBI, the Internal Revenue, the Bureau of
Narcotics, and many others. We shall need further anti-crime, mass transit,
and transportation legislation--and new tools to fight air pollution. And
with all this effort under way, both equity and common sense require that
our nation's urban areas--containing three-fourths of our population--sit
as equals at the Cabinet table. I urge a new Department of Urban Affairs
and Housing.
AGRICULTURE AND RESOURCES
A strong America also depends on its farms and natural resources. American
farmers took heart in 1961--from a billion dollar rise in farm income--and
from a hopeful start on reducing the farm surpluses. But we are still
operating under a patchwork accumulation of old laws, which cost us $1
billion a year in CCC carrying charges alone, yet fail to halt rural
poverty or boost farm earnings.
Our task is to master and turn to fully fruitful ends the magnificent
productivity of our farms and farmers. The revolution on our own
countryside stands in the sharpest contrast to the repeated farm failures
of the Communist nations and is a source of pride to us all. Since 1950 our
agricultural output per man-hour has actually doubled! Without new,
realistic measures, it will someday swamp our farmers and our taxpayers in
a national scandal or a farm depression.
I will, therefore, submit to the Congress a new comprehensive farm
program--tailored to fit the use of our land and the supplies of each crop
to the long-range needs of the sixties--and designed to prevent chaos in
the sixties with a program of common sense.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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