No doubt even as we meet there are some in Congress who may wish to amend the Constitution to address current problems with federal entitlements. I have a better idea. Just as Presidents Bush and Clinton, backed by Congresses of both parties, demonstrated the will and wisdom to lead in balancing the budget, so I am convinced that working together, we can honestly preserve Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. No doubt many of tomorrow's leaders will begin their careers here, at the Detroit College of Law at Michigan State University. Nearing the end of a century scarred by oppression and stained by war, I put my faith in you and in democracy.
Democracy is often messy and almost always noisy.
But that is a minor price to pay for self-government under the law. I put my faith in freedom. For only a free society has the courage to question itself. Only a brutalized one could endanger its future by denying its present imperfections. I put my faith in free enterprise, in the extraordinary creative possibilities that lie within seemingly ordinary men and women.