US Presidency
1967

The deficit then will be $ 8.1 billion. I will very soon forward all of my recommendations to the Congress. Yours is the responsibility to discuss and to debate them to approve or modify or reject them. I welcome your views, as I have welcomed working with you for 30 years as a colleague and as Vice President and President. I should like to say to the Members of the opposition whose numbers, if I am not mistaken, seem to have increased somewhat that the genius of the American political system has always been best expressed through creative debate that offers choices and reasonable alternatives. Throughout our history, great Republicans and Democrats have seemed to understand this. So let there be light and reason in our relations. That is the way to a responsible session and a responsive government. Let us be remembered as a President and a Congress who tried to improve the quality of life for every American not just the rich, not just the poor, but every man, woman, and child in this great Nation of ours.