THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody.  Good afternoon.  I know everybody is itching（发痒，渴望） to get out of here and spend some time with their families.  I am, too.  I noticed some of you colleagues have been reporting from Hawaii over the last week.  But I just wanted to say a few words about the progress that we’ve made on some important issues over these last few weeks.
 
A lot of folks in this town predicted that after the midterm elections, Washington would be headed for more partisanship（党派偏见） and more gridlock（僵局） .  And instead, this has been a season of progress for the American people.  That progress is reflecting -- is a reflection of the message that voters sent in November -- a message that said it’s time to find common ground on challenges facing our country.  That’s a message that I will take to heart in the New Year, and I hope my Democratic and Republican friends will do the same.
 
First of all, I am glad that Democrats and Republicans came together to approve my top national security priority for this session of Congress -- the New START treaty.  This is the most significant arms control agreement in nearly two decades, and it will make us safer and reduce our nuclear arsenals（核军火库） along with Russia.  With this treaty, our inspectors will also be back on the ground at Russian nuclear bases.  So we will be able to trust but verify.
 
We’ll continue to advance our relationship with Russia, which is essential to making progress on a host of challenges -- from enforcing strong sanctions（制裁，处罚） on Iran to preventing nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists.  And this treaty will enhance our leadership to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and seek the peace of a world without them.
 
The strong, bipartisan vote in the Senate sends a powerful signal to the world that Republicans and Democrats stand together on behalf of our security.  And I especially want to thank the outstanding work done by Vice President Joe Biden; the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator John Kerry; and the Ranking Republican, Senator Richard Lugar, for their extraordinary efforts. 
 
In fact, I just got off the phone with Dick Lugar, and reminded him the first trip I ever took as senator -- foreign trip -- was with Dick Lugar to Russia, to look at nuclear facilities there.  And I told him how much I appreciated the work he had done and that there was a direct line between that trip that we took together when I was a first-year senator and the results of the vote today on the floor.
 
This all speaks to a tradition of bipartisan support for strong American leadership around the world -- and that's a tradition that was reinforced by the fact that the New START treaty won the backing of our military and our allies abroad.  
 
In the last few weeks, we also came together across party lines to pass a package of tax cuts and unemployment insurance that will spur jobs, businesses and growth.   This package includes a payroll tax cut that means nearly every American family will get an average tax cut next year of about a thousand dollars delivered in their paychecks.  It will make a difference for millions of students and parents and workers and people still looking for work.  It’s led economists across the political spectrum to predict that the economy will grow faster than they originally thought next year.  
 
In our ongoing struggle to perfect our union, we also overturned a 17-year-old law and a longstanding injustice by finally ending “don’t ask, don’t tell.”  As I said earlier today, this is the right thing to do for our security; it’s the right thing to do, period.
 
In addition, we came together across party lines to pass a food safety bill -- the biggest upgrade of America’s food safety laws since the Great Depression.  And I hope the House will soon join the Senate in passing a 9/11 health bill that will help cover the health care costs of police officers, firefighters, rescue workers, and residents who inhaled（吸入） toxic air near the World Trade Center on that terrible morning and the days that followed.
 
So I think it’s fair to say that this has been the most productive post-election period we’ve had in decades, and it comes on the heels of（紧跟，紧接着） the most productive two years that we’ve had in generations.
 
That doesn’t mean that our business is finished.  I am very disappointed Congress wasn’t able to pass the DREAM Act so we can stop punishing kids for the actions of their parents, and allow them to serve in the military or earn an education and contribute their talents to the country where they grew up.#p#分页标题#e#
 
I’m also disappointed we weren’t able to come together around a budget to fund our government over the long term.  I expect we’ll have a robust debate about this when we return from the holidays -- a debate that will have to answer an increasingly urgent question -- and that is how do we cut spending that we don’t need while making investments that we do need -- investments in education, research and development, innovation, and the things that are essential to grow our economy over the long run, create jobs, and compete with every other nation in the world.  I look forward to hearing from folks on both sides of the aisle about how we can accomplish that goal.
 
If there’s any lesson to draw from these past few weeks, it’s that we are not doomed to endless gridlock.  We’ve shown, in the wake of the November elections, that we have the capacity not only to make progress, but to make progress together.
 
And I’m not naïve.  I know there will be tough fights in the months ahead.  But my hope heading into the New Year is that we can continue to heed（注意，留心） the message of the American people and hold to a spirit of common purpose in 2011 and beyond.  And if we do that, I’m convinced that we will lift up our middle class, we will rebuild our economy, and we will make our contribution to America’s greatness.
 
Finally, before I take questions, I want to send a message to all those Americans who are spending Christmas serving our nation in harm’s way.  As I said in Afghanistan earlier this month, the American people stand united in our support and admiration for you.  And in this holiday season, I’d ask the American people to keep our troops in your prayers, and lend a hand to those military families who have an empty seat at the table.