It's an honor and, indeed, a pleasure to have you here at the White House.

I simply will not break faith with the young men and women who have freely chosen to serve their country.

The world remains a dangerous place with serious threats to important U.S. interests.

America remains a pivotal factor for peaceful change.

The budget constraints we face are very real; but so, too, is the need to protect the gains that 40 years of peace through strength have earned us.

I can't think of a more exciting time in the history of the United States to be your President.

Failure to enact a debt limit increase by that date would compress the time period for distributing those securities.

Failure to enact a debt limit increase by August 13 would prevent the Treasury from auctioning securities on August 14 and settling on August 15.

A default would almost certainly occur on August 15 if the debt limit is not increased.

This would raise the cost of Treasury borrowing, all other things being equal.

The cost of the delay would grow with its length.

And now I sign legislation which takes a sledgehammer to another wall, one which has for too many generations separated Americans with disabilities from the freedom they could glimpse, but not grasp.