We must do a better job in community development--in creating more livable communities, in which all of our children can grow up with fuller access to opportunity and greater immunity to the social evils and blights which now plague so many of our towns and cities. I shall have proposals to help us achieve this.
I shall also deal with our defense and foreign policies, and with our new approaches to the role and structure of Government itself.
Considered as a whole, this series of messages will be a blueprint for modernizing the concept and the functions of American Government to meet the needs of our people.
Converting it into reality will require a spirit of cooperation and shared commitment on the part of all branches of the Government, for the goals we seek are not those of any single party or faction, they are goals for the betterment of all Americans. As President, I recognize that I cannot do this job alone. The Congress must help, and I pledge to do my part to achieve a constructive working relationship with the Congress. My sincere hope is that the executive and legislative branches can work together in this great undertaking in a positive spirit of mutual respect and cooperation.
Working together--the Congress, the President and the people--I am confident that we can translate these proposals into an action program that can reform and revitalize American Government and, even more important, build a better life for all Americans.
The White House,
February 2, 1973.
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State of the Union Address
Richard Nixon
January 30, 1974
Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, my colleagues in the Congress, our distinguished guests, my fellow Americans: