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.

我們的工作必須從如何決定我們的預算開始——這些決定將對我們復蘇的勢頭有巨大影響。

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.

過去幾年，兩黨共同努力，削減了2.5萬億美元的赤字——大部分是通過削減支出進行的，當然我們也對最富有的1%的美國人提高了稅率。結果就是，我們已經完成了經濟學家認為的足以穩定財政的削減赤字4萬億美元任務的一半還要多。

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

現在我們需要完成這項任務。問題是，怎樣完成？

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，國會通過了一個議案。議案稱如果兩黨不能對削減赤字達成一致，那么價值約1萬億美元的預算削減將會自動生效。這些突然的、殘酷的、武斷的削減，將會使我們的軍事準備陷入危險。這也將會使教育、能源及醫療科研等優先問題惡化。這將會毫無疑問地減緩我們的經濟復蘇，并且還會讓我們付出成百上千個就業崗位的代價。這就是為什么民主黨員們、共和黨員們、商業領袖們以及經濟學家們已經說過，在華盛頓被認為是一種扣押行為的這些削減措施，是一個確實無誤的壞主意。

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. (Applause.)

現在，國會中的某些人已經開始提議防止通過更大幅度的削減教育、職業培訓、老年保健醫療體系和社會保險津貼的經費以削減國防經費。(掌聲)

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，目前推動我們長期債務最大的推手是，養老醫療保障費用的增加。那些非常關心我們老年保健醫療體系的人必須接受適度的改革——否則，我們退休項目將會比我們對孩子們的投入更龐大，而且會使得未來幾代人的退休保障更加危險。

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. (Applause.) 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，我們不能讓老人和工薪家庭承擔削減赤字的重任的同時，不去向最富有的最有影響力的人征收更多的稅收。(掌聲)我們不會通過向那些已經在艱苦奮斗的家庭簡單地提升醫療保險經費或者大學學費抑或是強迫社區裁掉更多的老師、警察、消防員的方法以擴充我們的中產階級。大多數美國人——民主黨員們、共和黨員們、獨立人士——理解我們并不能削減掉我們通往繁榮的道路。他們知道，我們基礎廣泛的經濟增長，需要的是一個可以削減支出和稅收的每一個人都各司其職的平衡的途徑以抵達赤字削減的目標。這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. (Applause.)

關于老年保健醫療體系，我已準備頒布改革方案，那將在下一個10年開始時，實現同等數額的保健資金儲備。這一改革方案是由國會內跨黨派的辛普森-鮑爾斯委員會草擬提交的。(掌聲)