Ronald Reagan

One of your crewmen caught a glimpse of just how much it all meant to you.

Instead of citing at the end of each year how many people were being maintained on welfare, every year they would be saying how many people we had been able to remove from welfare and restore to a position of independence.

Our current welfare system is not only a failure but counterproductive.

The simple fact is government had taken a stand against families.

Welfare reform is not just important but vital—vital to our economic well-being; vital, indeed, to our self-respect as a nation.

The only true measure of a welfare program's success is how many people it makes independent of welfare.

Our goal instead must be to establish a process that allows states and communities to implement their own anti-poverty ideas based on their own unique circumstances.

The sad truth is that, despite our best intentions, the welfare system is failing; the system traps people in a cycle of dependency that robs them of dignity.

I applaud those efforts, and want to begin a process to encourage many more of these state and community-based reform efforts.

We can and must do better.

Together we must persuade Congress to provide you the tools necessary to create a better life for Americans in need.

I tell them that if they ever get a busy signal, it's because I'm in there ahead of them.

I call upon all Americans to join the National Conference of Christians and Jews in celebrating the vibrant, richly diverse society the Constitution has made possible in America.

Our Founding Fathers knew that their hope was in prayer.

This bicentennial year is a singularly appropriate time to reflect on its importance to each of us.

The principles it embodies are timeless: protection of the individual against the state.

Those prayers, and millions like them, will always keep our country secure and make her a force for good.

The Constitution is the anchor of our Republic.

S. 83 is not needed to insure Federal regulation of appliance energy standards.

I'm pleased to report that my head will remain warm and dry during my next visit to the ranch.

S. 83 is virtually identical to H.R. 5456, which the President pocket vetoed on November 1, 1986.

I would be pleased to receive you and the crew at the White House upon your arrival in the United States.

I intend to nominate Van B. Poole to be a member of the National Advisory Council on Educational Research and Improvement.

Your victory represents more than just another yachting triumph.

Your patience has paid off and all of America is proud.