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In making this point, Reagan got some unexpected help from Andropov, who is thought to be running the Soviet government from a dacha outside Moscow while he recovers from his still mysterious illness. In what was billed as an "interview" with Pravda and released by the Soviet news agency TASS the day before the State of the Union speech, Andropov asserted, "I want to confirm that the Soviet Union is prepared to solve the problem of nuclear arms in Europe only on a constructive, mutually acceptable basis." While this wording was ambiguous and coupled with repetitions of standard Soviet bargaining points, it seemed to hint at slightly greater willingness to resume the missile-limitation talks that Moscow broke off in November. Reagan happily responded in a brief exchange with reporters: "I welcome that [Andropov's remarks], and I think it is a reply to all this feeling that we have no communications with them."
Domestically, Reagan in the State of the Union speech made bows to right and left. Since the New Right has been miffed by his lack of attention to the so-called social issues, he put in plugs for antiabortion legislation and school prayer. "If you can begin your day with a member of the clergy standing right here leading you in prayer," said he, addressing his remarks to Congress, "then why can't freedom to acknowledge God be enjoyed again by children in every schoolroom across this land?" For liberals, Reagan observed that "preservation of our environment is not a liberal or conservative challenge; it's common sense," and pledged to add $50 million to this year's $410 million budget for the Environmental Protection Agency—"one of the largest percentage budget increases of any agency." The figures are complicated and slippery; by one method of calculation the EPA would still have 10.4% less to spend than it had in Jimmy Carter's last budget. But the move responded to public concern. Said Environmentalist Leader Marion Edey: "He's reading the same polls we are."
The thorniest problem that Reagan had to address was the deficit, because he had rejected all steps that seemed likely to be of much immediate help in getting it under control. The President repeated his philosophical objections to tax increases ("immoral"), and in his budget message Feb. 1 he will propose only minor cuts in nonmilitary spending, yoked to a huge increase in defense outlays. Yet he had to say something. Reagan and his advisers agreed on an idea almost literally at the last minute: the night before the speech, an all but final draft contained a big hole for a yet to be approved insert on the deficit subject.