State of the Union 1987

Summary

The 1987 State of the Union Address delivered January 27, 1987, in the 200th anniversary year of the U.S. Constitution, notes dramatic improvements in the inflation rate, interest rates, housing starts, and the unemployment rate. Reagan regrets the Iran-Contra controversy and promises to get to the bottom of it and take whatever action is called for.

Though the Soviets transferred $75 billion in weapons to client-states like Syria, Vietnam, Cuba, Libya, Angola, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and Nicaragua, the Congress cut administration requests for security assistance and defense. There “is no surer way to lose freedom than to lose our resolve.” As President Truman said: “International communism seeks to crush and undermine and destroy the independence of the Americas. We cannot let that happen here.”

Our Strategic Defense Initiative, SDI, “is the most positive and promising defense program we have undertaken. It's the path, for both sides, to a safer future -- a system that defends human life instead of threatening it.”

We support free trade and “expanding peaceful commerce across the world.” We remain opposed as ever to protectionism…”

The “federal deficit is outrageous.” We need “a constitutional amendment that mandates a balanced budget”. We need “a line-item veto so we can carve out the boondoggles and pork…” “We have deficits because big government spends too much.”

The U.S. Constitution “grew out of the most fundamental inspiration of our existence: that we are here to serve Him by living free -- that living free releases in us the noblest of impulses and the best of our abilities; that we would use these gifts for good and generous purposes and would secure them not just for ourselves and for our children but for all mankind.”

Audio recording courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

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