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Transcript of President Barack Obama?s speech

Remarks of President Barack Obama to a Joint Session of Congress:

Madam Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, the First Lady of the United States ? (applause) ? she?s around here somewhere.

I have come here tonight not only to address the distinguished men and women in this great chamber, but to speak frankly and directly to the men and women who sent us here.

I know that for many Americans watching right now, the state of our economy is a concern that rises above all others. And rightly so. If you haven?t been personally affected by this recession, you probably know someone who has ? a friend; a neighbor; a member of your family. You don?t need to hear another list of statistics to know that our economy is in crisis, because you live it every day. It?s the worry you wake up with and the source of sleepless nights. It?s the job you thought you?d retire from but now have lost; the business you built your dreams upon that?s now hanging by a thread; the college acceptance letter your child had to put back in the envelope. The impact of this recession is real, and it is everywhere.

Difficult and uncertain times

But while our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken, though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before. (Applause.)

The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don?t lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and our universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth. Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more. (Applause.)

Now, if we?re honest with ourselves, we?ll admit that for too long, we have not always met these responsibilities ? as a government or as a people. I say this not to lay blame or to look backwards, but because it is only by understanding how we arrived at this moment that we?ll be able to lift ourselves out of this predicament.

The fact is our economy did not fall into decline overnight. Nor did all of our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank. We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before. The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year, yet we keep delaying reform. Our children will compete for jobs in a global economy that too many of our schools do not prepare them for. And though all these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt, both as individuals and through our government, than ever before.

?Difficult decisions were put off?
In other words, we have lived through an era where too often short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election. A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future. (Applause.) Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn?t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day.

Well that day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our future is here.

Now is the time to act boldly and wisely ? to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity. Now is the time to jumpstart job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down. That is what my economic agenda is designed to do, and that is what I?d like to talk to you about tonight.

It?s an agenda that begins with jobs. (Applause.)

As soon as I took office, I asked this Congress to send me a recovery plan by President?s Day that would put people back to work and put money in their pockets. Not because I believe in bigger government ? I don?t. Not because I?m not mindful of the massive debt we?ve inherited ? I am. I called for action because the failure to do so would have cost more jobs and caused more hardship. In fact, a failure to act would have worsened our long-term deficit by assuring weak economic growth for years. And that?s why I pushed for quick action. And tonight, I am grateful that this Congress delivered, and pleased to say that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is now law. (Applause.)

WhiteHouse.gov

Located at:

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500

(202) 456-1111

The White House, since 1800 the official residence of the president of the United States, is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. The winner of a 1792 competition for its design was the Irish-American architect James Hoban, whose dignified neoclassical plan was a virtual copy of a project in James Gibbs’s Book of Architecture (1728). As early as 1807, Benjamin Latrobe, the principal architect of the Capitol, sought to improve the building by preparing designs for pavilions at either end (added that year in collaboration with Thomas Jefferson), for interior alterations, and for porticos on both fronts. After the building was burned (1814) by the British, it was reconstructed (1815-17) by Hoban, who also added (1826) the semicircular South Portico that Latrobe had proposed and completed (1829) Latrobe’s rectangular North Portico.

The White House was extensively remodeled (1902) by the firm of McKim, Mead, and White, which also added the East Gallery and the Executive Office Wing. Between 1948 and 1952 the building, deemed structurally unsound, was gutted and its interior structure replaced with steel framing, within which the original rooms were reconstructed. Since 1961 each First Lady has contributed to a continuing effort to refurbish the interior. The resultant enhancement has made the White House a veritable museum of decorative arts of the first quarter of the 19th century.

The White House address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The full White House address is shown below.

View of the White House with National Christmas Tree at bottom of picture.

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Truman Reconstruction : 1948-1952

Major Renovations at thr White House

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During the Depression and war years of the Franklin Roosevelt administration, the White House’s annual repair budget had been neglected. With the approval of Congress, Roosevelt had made major additions to the West Wing and the East Wing to accommodate the fact that the office of the president and organizations that answer directly to him had grown enormously. As a result, the West Wing was still overcrowded and lacked a cafeteria and a press theater.

A Rejected West Wing Addition

When Harry Truman became president in 1945, he had detailed plans drawn up by Lorenzo Winslow to construct an addition on the south side of the West Wing that would satisfy its needs. Although ground was broken and appropriations made by Congress, clumsy handling of the matter raised concerns on Capitol Hill (many felt Truman had sneaked the funding through) and among the public (many thought the mansion itself would be altered). Despite Truman’s efforts, the funding was recalled and withheld even after Winslow produced a reduced version of the plan in early 1946.

Mr. Truman’s Balcony

Irritated by the rejection of his West Wing expansion, in 1948, Truman decided to add a balcony to the South Portico at the second-floor level using money already allotted for White House maintenance. A great deal of public objection was raised, but this time the president had the money to complete the project without relying on Congress, and the balcony was constructed according to plan.

…And a Whole New Residence

Not long after the Truman Balcony was completed, the main body of the mansion was found to be structurally unsound. Floors no longer merely creaked; they swayed. The president’s bathtub was sinking into the floor. A leg of Margaret’s piano broke through the floor in what is today the Private Dining Room. Engineers did a thorough examination and found plaster in a corner of the East Room sagging as much as 18 inches. Wooden beams had been weakened by cutting and drilling for plumbing and wiring over 150 years, and the addition of the steel roof and full third floor in 1927 added weight the building could no longer handle. They declared the whole house to be in imminent danger of collapse.

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Plans were discussed to demolish the building and rebuild it to the same design, but in the end, Truman went to Congress and requested the funding to rebuild the White House from the inside out, leaving only the stout brick outer walls and the rebuild the interior largely on the same plan as the existing house—very much the way President James Madison had done in 1814.

The old interior of the Residence was dismantled, leaving the house as a shell with the two modern wings. Some of the existing interior detail was saved, especially fireplace mantels. Some of the scrap was sold as souvenirs.

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The mansion was then rebuilt using concrete and steel beams in place of its original wooden joists. Some modifications were made, with the most obvious being the repositioning of the grand staircase to open into the Entrance Hall, rather than the Cross Hall. Also, before the renovation, no baths connected with the guest rooms. Afterwards, all guest rooms had adjoining baths and separate baths were provided for the servants.

One special consideration was the East Sitting Hall. The higher ceiling in the East Room raised the east rooms about three feet in the original house, and four steps led into it, hampering the movement of the disabled (FDR and, after his stroke, Woodrow Wilson). With the use of steel construction, Architect Lorenzo Winslow managed to reduce the difference to less than one foot. In order accommodate the closets and extra staircase to the third floor also requested by the president, Winslow created a corridor with a barrel vault ceiling that enclosed a ramp up into the East Sitting Hall.

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South face, with round portico in 2007

While the White House was being dismantled and rebuilt, Harry and Bess Truman (daughter Margaret had ventured out on a singing career) moved to Blair House across the street at 1651-1653 Pennsylvania Ave. Actually a combination of two adjoining houses built by the prominent Blair family, it had become the official guest residence for visiting dignitaries in 1942 and remains so today.

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North face, with square portico in 2007