annot be
cured by what is *right* with America.

And so today we pledge an end to the era of deadlock and drift, and a
new season of American renewal has begun.

To renew America we must be bold. We must do what no generation has had
to do before. We must invest more in our own people, in their jobs, and
in their future, and at the same time cut our massive debt...and we must
do so in a world in which we must compete for every opportunity. It will
not be easy. It will require sacrifice, but it can be done, and done
fairly. Not choosing sacrifice for its own sake, but for *our* own
sake. We must provide for our nation the way a family provides for its
children. Our founders saw themselves in the light of posterity. We can
do no less. Anyone who has ever watched a child's eyes wander into sleep
knows what posterity is. Posterity is the world to come, the world for
whom we hold our ideals, from whom we have borrowed our planet, and to
whom we bear sacred responsibilities. We must do what America does best,
offer more opportunity TO all and demand more responsibility *from* all.

It is time to break the bad habit of expecting something for nothing:
from our government, or from each other. Let us all take more
responsibility, not only for ourselves and our families, but for our
communities and our country. To renew America we must revitalize our
democracy. This beautiful capitol, like every capitol since the dawn
of civilization, is often a place of intrigue and calculation. Powerful
people maneuver for position and worry endlessly about who is *in* and
who is *out*, who is *up* and who is *down*, forgetting those people
whose toil and sweat sends us here and paves our way.

Americans deserve better, and in this city today there are people who
want to do better, and so I say to all of you here, let us resolve to
reform our politics, so that power and privilege no longer shout down
the voice of the people. Let us put aside personal advantage, so that we
can feel the pain and see the promise of America. Let us resolve to
make our government a place for what Franklin Roosevelt called "bold,
persistent experimentation, a government for our tomorrows, not our
yesterdays." Let us give this capitol back to the people to whom it
belongs.

To renew America we must meet challenges abroad, as well as at home.
There is no longer a clear division between what is foreign and what
is domestic. The world economy, the world environment,