WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama says the nation must make the "hard choices" to reduce the cost of health care and the size of the deficit.
But the president said every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity, and he held up Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security as commitments that strengthen America.
Speaking in his inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol Monday, Obama said he rejected the belief that the country must choose between caring for the generation that built the country - or investing in the generation that will build the future.
Struggles with Republicans over reducing the deficit and paring back costly entitlement programs loom for Obama in his second term.
Earlier in his speech, Obama said that a decade of war is now ending and an economic recovery has begun.
America's possibilities are limitless, the president said in his inaugural address. He said we will seize this moment if we seize it together.
Obama said that America can't succeed when only a few at the top do well and a growing many can barely make it. The country's prosperity must rest on a rising middle class, he said.
The president also talked about climate change.
President Obama said he is pledging to respond to what he calls "the threat of climate change."
He says that failing to do so would be a betrayal of the nation's children, and of future generations.
He said that while some might deny the "overwhelming judgment of science" - a reference to those who say they don't believe in global warming - no one can escape extreme weather like raging fires, drought and storms.
Obama tried and failed in his first term to get a climate change bill through Congress.
