OBAMA: Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation, and one people.
(APPLAUSE)
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This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled (ph) our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending.
(APPLAUSE)
And economic recovery has begun.
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America’s possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive, diversity and openness, of endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention.
My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment and we will seize it, so long as we seize it together.
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For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.
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We believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work, when the wages of honest labor will liberate families from the brink of hardship.
OBAMA: We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.
(APPLAUSE)
We understand that outworn (ph) programs are inadequate to the needs of our time. So we must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work hard or learn more, reach higher.
But while the means will change, our purpose endures. A nation that rewards the effort and determination of every single American, that is what this moment requires. That is what will give real meaning to our creed.
We, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity. We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit.
(APPLAUSE)
But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.
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For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty and parents of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn. We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved for the lucky or happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us at any time may face a job loss or a sudden illness or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, these things do not sap our initiative.
OBAMA: They strengthen us.
(APPLAUSE)
They do not make us a nation of takers. They free us to take the risks that make this country great.
(APPLAUSE)
We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.
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