State of the Union AddressesJohnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines)
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State of the Union Addresses
Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines)
Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
We ask now, not how can we achieve abundance?--but how shall we use our
abundance? Not, is there abundance enough for all?--but, how can all share
in our abundance?
While we have accomplished much, much remains for us to meet and much
remains for us to master.
--In some areas, the jobless rate is still three or four times the national
average.
--Violence has shown its face in some of our cities.
--Crime increases on our streets.
--Income for farm workers remains far behind that for urban workers; and
parity for our farmers who produce our food is still just a hope--not an
achievement.
--New housing construction is far less than we need--to assure decent
shelter for every family.
--Hospital and medical costs are high, and they are rising.
--Many rivers--and the air in many cities--remain badly polluted. And our
citizens suffer from breathing that air.
We have lived with conditions like these for many, many years. But much
that we once accepted as inevitable, we now find absolutely intolerable.
In our cities last summer, we saw how wide is the gulf for some Americans
between the promise and the reality of our society.
We know that we cannot change all of this in a day. It represents the
bitter consequences of more than three centuries.
But the issue is not whether we can change this; the issue is whether we
will change this.
Well, I know we can. And I believe we will.
This then is the work we should do in the months that are ahead of us in
this Congress.
The first essential is more jobs, useful jobs for tens of thousands who can
become productive and can pay their own way.
Our economy has created 7 1/2 million new jobs in the past 4 years. It is
adding more than a million and a half new jobs this year.
Through programs passed by the Congress, job training is being given
tonight to more than a million Americans in this country.
This year, the time has come when we must get to those who are last in
line--the hard-core unemployed--the hardest to reach.
Employment officials estimate that 500,000 of these persons are now
unemployed in the major cities of America. Our objective is to place these
500,000 in private industry jobs within the next 3 years.
To do this, I propose a $2. 1 billion manpower program in the coming fiscal
year--a 25 percent increase over the current year. Most of this increase
will be used to start a new partnership between government and private
industry to train and to hire the hard-core unemployed persons. I know of
no task before us of more importance to us, to the country, or to our
future.
Another essential is to rebuild our cities.
Last year the Congress authorized $662 million for the Model Cities
program. I requested the full amount of that authorization to help meet the
crisis in the cities of America. But the Congress appropriated only $312
million--less than half.
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