Weekly Video Address: For Decades, Washington Has Refused to Make the Tough Choices

In his weekly address, President Donald Trump addressed middle-class Americans who are struggling to make ends meet under the burdens of government regulation and taxation, but his message was directed squarely at another audience: Congress.

Now that he has returned from his first trip abroad, expect the president’s focus to return to domestic affairs. Specifically, he’s going to begin pushing for the Senate to adopt the American Health Care Act, which has stalled out there, and the House to stick to his budget proposal.

You can watch the weekly address in the video clip above. The following is the full text of his address:

Each month families across the country work very, very hard to balance their budgets and to make the tough choices necessary to take care of their loved ones and to give their children opportunities they never had before. This is who we are as Americans—we take pride in leaving each new generation a better country than the one we inherited.

Yet for decades, Washington has refused to make the tough choices. As a result, the American dream has slipped from the grasp of more and more of our people.

This has to change. We need a government that spends on the right things—the safety, security and well-being of our people—and stops the waste and abuse of taxpayer funds, whether in America or in global projects overseas—of which, perhaps, there are too many.

My administration is laying a new foundation to build a future of economic prosperity and achieve American greatness. The budget we are proposing will reverse economic stagnation and open the path to millions of new jobs for American workers.

We will balance the budget without making cuts in Social Security and Medicare. We will achieve our goals by doing exactly what you do in your home: setting priorities, cutting the fat and growing new opportunities. And the big thing for me is economic growth, which is not possible without safety and security. We will grow our economy; it is growing already. It will grow faster than you’ve seen it in decades. That is why our budget reverses years of cuts to our military that have made us less safe in a more dangerous world. We are going to make sure the men and women on the front lines of freedom have the tools they need to keep us safe and totally secure.

At home, we are going to give our ICE officers—who have done an incredible job—and our Border Patrol agents—who are amazing people—everything they need to end the lawlessness once and for all.

It is our moral duty to keep our citizens safe and free, and to protect the right of every American to pursue their dreams. We don’t want MS-13 roving our streets, we’re getting rid of them by the thousands, they’re going to be out of here.

But I’m proud to tell you that the first budget we are releasing provides a firm new foundation for the safety, and also for jobs and prosperity for all Americans in the years to come.

Thank you very much. You’re going to love the end result. {eoa}