What drags down our entire economy is when there's an ever-widening chasm between the ultra-rich and everybody else.

Heaven forbid we've got a problem where we could have prevented a terrorist attack or apprehended someone who is engaged in dangerous activity, but we didn't do so simply because of inaction in the Senate.

It was basic research in the photoelectric field-in the photoelectric effect that would one day lead to solar panels. It was basic research in physics that would eventually produce the CAT scan. The calculations of today's GPS satellites are based on the equations that Einstein put to paper more than a century ago.

The globe is shrinking, the information age is bringing a lot of changes. People are anxious about their future and their children's futures.

As I've said, there were patriots who supported this war, and patriots who opposed it. And all of us are united in appreciation for our servicemen and women, and our hopes for Iraqis' future.

It is our generation's task, then, to reignite the true engine of America's economic growth - a rising, thriving middle class.

Palestinians will never realize their independence by denying the right of Israel to exist.