The 2013 State of the Union Address

　　2013年奥巴马国情咨文演说

　　By Barack Obama

　　Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, fellow citizens:

　　议长先生，副总统先生，国会议员们，美国人民：

　　Fifty-one years ago, John F. Kennedy declared to this chamber that “the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress.” “It is my task,” he said, “to report the State of the Union – to improve it is the task of us all.”

　　51年前，约翰·F.肯尼迪在这里宣布“宪法让我们成为进步的伙伴而不是权利的对手，”他说，“发表国情咨文是我的任务，但是完善国情却是我们所有人的任务。”

　　Tonight, thanks to the grit and determination of the American people, there is much progress to report. After a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home. After years of grueling recession, our businesses have created over six million new jobs. We buy more American cars than we have in five years, and less foreign oil than we have in 20. Our housing market is healing, our stock market is rebounding, and consumers, patients, and homeowners enjoy stronger protections than ever before.

　　今晚，感谢美国人民的勇气和决心，我有很多内容需要汇报。在十年的残酷战争之后，我们勇敢的穿军装的男人女人正在归来。在多年的紧张的萧条期后，我们的商业已经创造了600万新的就业岗位。我们现在开始购入比过去5年还要多的汽车，但依赖的国外石油比过去20年总和都要少。我们的住宅市场正在复苏，我们的股票市场正在反弹。消费者、病人、房产所有者也享受比之前更有力的保护。

　　So, together, we have cleared away the rubble of crisis, and we can say with renewed confidence that the State of our Union is stronger.

　　所以，在一起，我们清除了危机的废墟。而且，我们可以说，通过新的信心，我们国家的状态更强有力了。

　　But we gather here knowing that there are millions of Americans whose hard work and dedication have not yet been rewarded. Our economy is adding jobs – but too many people still can’t find full-time employment. Corporate profits have skyrocketed to all-time highs – but for more than a decade, wages and incomes have barely budged.

　　但是我们来到这里，知道还有数百万的美国人，通过辛苦的工作和奉献，并没有得到回报。我们的经济正在创造就业岗位——但仍然有许多人不能找到全职工作。企业利润飙升到了新高度——–但十多年来，薪资和收入几乎从未上升。

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

　　我们这一代人的任务是——重燃美国经济增长的发动机——造就一个升起的、兴旺的中产阶级。

　　It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country – the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, no matter what you look like, or who you love.

　　我们的未竟任务是——恢复我们国家的基本协议——如果你工作努力并且负责任，你将会领先于别人，不论你从哪里来，不论你长得怎样，或者爱的是谁。

　　It is our unfinished task to make sure that this government works on behalf of the many, and not just the few; that it encourages free enterprise, rewards individual initiative, and opens the doors of opportunity to every child across this great nation.

　　我们的未竟任务是——政府为大多数人服务，而不是少数人;政府鼓励自由企业、奖励个人的主创性，并且给这个国家的每一个孩子都提供发展的机会。

　　The American people don’t expect government to solve every problem. They don’t expect those of us in this chamber to agree on every issue. But they do expect us to put the nation’s interests before party. They do expect us to forge reasonable compromise where we can. For they know that America moves forward only when we do so together, and that the responsibility of improving this union remains the task of us all.

　　美国人并不期望政府解决所有的问题。他们不期望在这个议事厅里的我们在所有的事务上有一致的看法。但是他们期望我们把国家利益放在党派前面。他们期望我们在我们能走做到的议题上形成合理的妥协。因为他们知道只有当我们一起做这些事的时候，美国才会前进。改善这个国家的责任是我们所共有的。

　　Our work must begin by making some basic decisions about our budget – decisions that will have a huge impact on the strength of our recovery.

　　我们的工作必须从如何决定我们的预算开始——这些决定将对我们复苏的势头有巨大影响。

　　Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion – mostly through spending cuts, but also by raising tax rates on the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. As a result, we are more than halfway towards the goal of $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists say we need to stabilize our finances.

　　过去几年，两党共同努力，削减了2.5万亿美元的赤字——大部分是通过削减支出进行的，当然我们也对最富有的1%的美国人提高了税率。结果就是，我们已经完成了经济学家认为的足以稳定财政的削减赤字4万亿美元任务的一半还要多。

　　Now we need to finish the job. And the question is, how?

　　现在我们需要完成这项任务。问题是，怎样完成?

　　In 2011, Congress passed a law saying that if both parties couldn’t agree on a plan to reach our deficit goal, about a trillion dollars’ worth of budget cuts would automatically go into effect this year. These sudden, harsh, arbitrary cuts would jeopardize our military readiness. They’d devastate priorities like education, and energy, and medical research. They would certainly slow our recovery, and cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs. That’s why Democrats, Republicans, business leaders, and economists have already said that these cuts, known here in Washington as the sequester, are a really bad idea.

　　2011年，国会通过了一个议案。议案称如果两党不能对削减赤字达成一致，那么价值约1万亿美元的预算削减将会自动生效。这些突然的、残酷的、武断的削减，将会使我们的军事准备陷入危险。这也将会使教育、能源及医疗科研等优先问题恶化。这将会毫无疑问地减缓我们的经济复苏，并且还会让我们付出成百上千个就业岗位的代价。这就是为什么民主党员们、共和党员们、商业领袖们以及经济学家们已经说过，在华盛顿被认为是一种扣押行为的这些削减措施，是一个确实无误的坏主意。

　　Now, some in Congress have proposed preventing only the defense cuts by making even bigger cuts to things like education and job training, Medicare and Social Security benefits. That idea is even worse.

　　现在，国会中的某些人已经开始提议防止通过更大幅度的削减教育、职业培训、老年保健医疗体系和社会保险津贴的经费以削减国防经费。

　　Yes, the biggest driver of our long-term debt is the rising cost of health care for an aging population. And those of us who care deeply about programs like Medicare must embrace the need for modest reforms – otherwise, our retirement programs will crowd out the investments we need for our children, and jeopardize the promise of a secure retirement for future generations.

　　是的，目前推动我们长期债务最大的推手是，养老医疗保障费用的增加。那些非常关心我们老年保健医疗体系的人必须接受适度的改革——否则，我们退休项目将会比我们对孩子们的投入更庞大，而且会使得未来几代人的退休保障更加危险。

　　But we can’t ask senior citizens and working families to shoulder the entire burden of deficit reduction while asking nothing more from the wealthiest and the most powerful. We won’t grow the middle class simply by shifting the cost of health care or college onto families that are already struggling, or by forcing communities to lay off more teachers and more cops and more firefighters. Most Americans – Democrats, Republicans, and independents – understand that we can’t just cut our way to prosperity. They know that broad-based economic growth requires a balanced approach to deficit reduction, with spending cuts and revenue, and with everybody doing their fair share. And that’s the approach I offer tonight.

　　但是，我们不能让老人和工薪家庭承担削减赤字的重任的同时，不去向最富有的最有影响力的人征收更多的税收。我们不会通过向那些已经在艰苦奋斗的家庭简单地提升医疗保险经费或者大学学费抑或是强迫社区裁掉更多的老师、警察、消防员的方法以扩充我们的中产阶级。大多数美国人——民主党员们、共和党员们、独立人士——理解我们并不能削减掉我们通往繁荣的道路。他们知道，我们基础广泛的经济增长，需要的是一个可以削减支出和税收的每一个人都各司其职的平衡的途径以抵达赤字削减的目标。这就是今晚我要提出的方案。

　　On Medicare, I’m prepared to enact reforms that will achieve the same amount of health care savings by the beginning of the next decade as the reforms proposed by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission.

　　关于老年保健医疗体系，我已准备颁布改革方案，那将在下一个10年开始时，实现同等数额的保健资金储备。这一改革方案是由国会内跨党派的辛普森–鲍尔斯委员会草拟提交的。

　　Already, the Affordable Care Act is helping to slow the growth of health care costs. And the reforms I’m proposing go even further. We’ll reduce taxpayer subsidies to prescription drug companies and ask more from the wealthiest seniors. We’ll bring down costs by changing the way our government pays for Medicare, because our medical bills shouldn’t be based on the number of tests ordered or days spent in the hospital; they should be based on the quality of care that our seniors receive. And I am open to additional reforms from both parties, so long as they don’t violate the guarantee of a secure retirement. Our government shouldn’t make promises we cannot keep – but we must keep the promises we’ve already made.

　　平价医疗法案已经开始帮助减缓医保经费的增长。我提议的改革将会走得更远。我们将会削减纳税人对于处方类药品公司的津贴，同时向那些最富有的高层管理索取更多。我们将会通过改变政府为老年保健医疗体系买单的方式以调低医药费，因为我们的医疗账单不应该基于我们在医院住了多少天做了多少体检，而应基于我们的老人享受了多么高质量的医护措施。现在我将听取来自两党的附加改革措施，只要他们不违反退休安全的保障。我们的政府不应该承诺一些我们不能完成的誓言，而是应该完成一些我们已经决定的诺言。

　　To hit the rest of our deficit reduction target, we should do what leaders in both parties have already suggested, and save hundreds of billions of dollars by getting rid of tax loopholes and deductions for the well-off and the well-connected. After all, why would we choose to make deeper cuts to education and Medicare just to protect special interest tax breaks? How is that fair? Why it is that deficit reduction is a big emergency justifying making cut in Social Security benefits but not closing some loopholes? How does that promote growth?

　　为了达到我们剩下的赤字削减目标，我们应该完成两党领袖已经建议了的，摆脱富贵者的税收漏洞和削减，这样可以节省千亿美元。毕竟，为什么我们要对教育和老年保健医疗体系选择进行更多的削减，而仅仅是为了保护一些特殊利益者的免税?那样公平吗?为什么赤字削减是社会保障救济金的的削减而非弥补那些高收入者的税收漏洞?那样可以提升经济增长速度吗?

　　Now is our best chance for bipartisan, comprehensive tax reform that encourages job creation and helps bring down the deficit. We can get this done. The American people deserve a tax code that helps small businesses spend less time filling out complicated forms, and more time expanding and hiring – a tax code that ensures billionaires with high-powered accountants can’t work the system and pay a lower rate than their hardworking secretaries; a tax code that lowers incentives to move jobs overseas, and lowers tax rates for businesses and manufacturers that are creating jobs right here in the United States of America. That’s what tax reform can deliver. That’s what we can do together.

　　现在是进行两党广泛合作的可以鼓励创造就业岗位以及削减赤字的税收改革最好时机。我们可以完成这个。美国人民理应得到一个可以帮助小企业花更少的时间填写复杂表格以及更多时间扩员和招募的免税代码——一个确保拥有高效会计师的亿万富翁们不能投机取巧地比他们更努力工作的秘书缴纳更少低额税率的免税代码;一个降低把岗位挪到海外、降低美国本土商业和制造业岗位税率的免税代码。这才是税务改革可以实现的。这才是我们可以共同完成的。

　　I realize that tax reform and entitlement reform will not be easy. The politics will be hard for both sides. None of us will get 100 percent of what we want. But the alternative will cost us jobs, hurt our economy, visit hardship on millions of hardworking Americans. So let’s set party interests aside and work to pass a budget that replaces reckless cuts with smart savings and wise investments in our future. And let’s do it without the brinksmanship that stresses consumers and scares off investors. The greatest nation on Earth cannot keep conducting its business by drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next. We can’t do it.

　　我知道税务改革和权利改革不会那么容易。对于两党来说，都将会很困难。我们没有人可以达到百分之百的需求。但是不这样做的后果是，我们的就业岗位、经济将会付出代价，百万奋斗中的美国人将会更加艰苦。因而我们要把党派利益放在一边，共同努力以通过一个可以取代不计后果的削减预算，对未来进行灵活的节省和智慧的投资。让我们共同努力，以取代一个让消费者紧张、让投资者害怕的边缘政策。地球上最伟大的国家不能继续通过把一个制造业危机漂流到下一个制造业危机的方式发展经济。我们不能这么做。

　　Let’s agree right here, right now to keep the people’s government open, and pay our bills on time, and always uphold the full faith and credit of the United States of America. The American people have worked too hard, for too long, rebuilding from one crisis to see their elected officials cause another.

　　让我们在此时此地就达成一致，保证人民的政府公开，按时付清我们的账单，并且经常支持美利坚合众国的信仰和信誉。美国人民在相当长的时间里工作太努力了，从一个危机中重建起来，发现被选上来的新官员造成了另一个危机。

　　Now, most of us agree that a plan to reduce the deficit must be part of our agenda. But let’s be clear, deficit reduction alone is not an economic plan. A growing economy that creates good, middle-class jobs – that must be the North Star that guides our efforts. Every day, we should ask ourselves three questions as a nation: How do we attract more jobs to our shores? How do we equip our people with the skills they need to get those jobs? And how do we make sure that hard work leads to a decent living?

　　现在，我们大多数人就削减赤字的方案达成一致。这是我们未来计划的一部分。但是我们要清醒地认识到，独立的赤字削减并不是一个经济方案。一个可以创造好的、中产阶级的就业岗位增长的经济体——应该是指引我们前进的北极星。每一天，我们作为一个国家应该对自己提出三个问题：我们如何把更多的岗位吸引到我们的两个海岸?我们如何进行岗位培训?我们如何确保努力工作之后可以有体面的生活?

　　A year and a half ago, I put forward an American Jobs Act that independent economists said would create more than 1 million new jobs. And I thank the last Congress for passing some of that agenda. I urge this Congress to pass the rest. But tonight, I’ll lay out additional proposals that are fully paid for and fully consistent with the budget framework both parties agreed to just 18 months ago. Let me repeat – nothing I’m proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime. It is not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth. That’s what we should be looking for.

　　一年半之前，我签署了美国就业法案。一些独立的经济学家认为这会创造100万个新岗位。我感谢上一届国会通过了其中的一些方案。我希望这一届国会通过剩下的。但是今晚，我将提出附加的方案。这些附加的方案是和两党在一年半之前达成一致的预算框架方案有很直接的关系的。让我重复一遍——我今晚提出的方案不会增加我们的预算一毛钱。我们不需要大政府，而需要一个能够明辨主次之分的对广泛的经济进行投资的更智能的政府。那才是我们应该寻求的。

　　Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing. After shedding jobs for more than 10 years, our manufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs over the past three. Caterpillar is bringing jobs back from Japan. Ford is bringing jobs back from Mexico. And this year, Apple will start making Macs in America again.

　　我们首要的任务是要让美国成为吸引新就业岗位和制造业的地方。在长达10年的制造业工作岗位的流失态势下，我们在过去3年创造了50万个就业岗位。开拓重工公司开始把岗位从日本带回。福特汽车公司开始把岗位从墨西哥带回。今年，苹果公司也将重新在美国生产苹果电脑。