State of the Union AddressesNixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous)
History
State of the Union Addresses
Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous)
Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
I will also ask for an 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. The time has come in
America 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.
Let us make a total national commitment to achieve this goal.
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 to 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 today as the
oldest written constitution still in force in the world.
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, that question has been resolved in favor of a stronger
central Federal Government.
During this time the Nation grew and the Nation 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.
The time has now come in America 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.
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 that they can meet those
responsibilities.
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.
All across America today, States and cities are confronted with a financial
crisis. Some have already been cutting back on essential services---for
example, just recently San Diego and Cleveland cut back on trash
collections. Most are caught between the prospects of bankruptcy 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 discovered the
other day that my home town of Whittier, California--which has a population
of 67,000--has a larger budget for 1971 than the entire Federal budget was
in 1791.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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