Video: '1996 State Of The Union - President Bill Clinton'

(Tuesday, January 23, 1996, 9:14 p.m. EST) — Offering his own idea of limited government to compete with the Republican vision, U.S. President Bill Clinton tonight challenged the nation to provide enough educational opportunities, economic security and freedom from crime to allow Americans to make the most of an “age of possibility.”

In an election-year State of the Union Message intended far more for voters than for the Republican-controlled Congress, Clinton separated himself from Democratic orthodoxy, twice pronouncing that the “era of big government is over.”