State of the Union 1985

The 1985 State of the Union Address delivered February 6, 1985, on Reagan’s 74th birthday, reports the strongest economic growth in 34 years, 3-year inflation of 3.9%, and more citizens working than ever before. Despite progress Reagan notes “millions in our inner cities who long for real jobs, safe neighborhoods, and schools that truly teach” and people around the world “who struggle to break free from totalitarianism”.

“Our economy is not getting older and weaker; it's getting younger and stronger.” Reagan calls for further tax cuts to make America the investment capital of the world. He calls for enterprise zones, rejects policies that break up families and increase dependency, and says that “blacks, Hispanics, and all minorities will not have full and equal power until they have full economic power.”

“National security is government's first responsibility”. We “only have a military-industrial complex until a time of danger, and then it becomes the arsenal of democracy.” Reagan advocates the Strategic Defense Initiative against ballistic missiles as “the most hopeful possibility of the nuclear age” and looks forward to “the day when nuclear weapons are banned from this Earth forever.” Some say it will take a long time. The “answer to that is: Let’s get started.”

“Many countries in east Asia and the Pacific have few resources other than the enterprise of their own people. But through low tax rates and free markets they've soared ahead of centralized economies.” ... “We've seen the benefits of free trade and lived through the disasters of protectionism. Tonight I ask all our trading partners, developed and developing alike, to join us in a new round of trade negotiations to expand trade and competition and strengthen the global economy ...”

Audio recording courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

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