In his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Barack Obama spoke of contradictory challenges facing the nation.

To compete globally and to achieve a strong economic rebound from the recent recession, the United States needs to rebuild its transportation infrastructure, expand high-speed Internet nationwide, diminish its dependence on foreign oil by investing in new energy technologies and reinvigorate an education system that lags behind other nations in student performance.

Yet where is the money to meet these challenges to come from? Because the second great challenge is to get control of government spending and slow the alarming growth in the deficit. The Congressional Budget Office projected Wednesday that the deficit will soon approach a record $1.5 trillion.

President Obama said the nation's ability to wrestle simultaneously with both these demands - investing wisely while not being buried under a mountain of debt, is "the final critical step in winning the future."

While the president did not provide details, his broad framework points the nation in the right direction. It is a framework upon which reasonable Republicans and Democrats can construct compromise without sacrificing their ideals.

President Obama called for a freeze on domestic spending for the next five years. This move, he said, would reduce the deficit by more than $400 billion and bring discretionary spending to the lowest share of the economy since the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

He again signaled his administration's willingness to cut tens of billions of dollars from the political golden calf - defense spending. Yet even deficit hawks grow weak-kneed when it comes to cuts in military spending and the jobs they produce back home. Why else does support remain for expensive planes such as the F-35 fighter and V-22 Osprey in the absence of a military argument for their continued procurement?

In the coming months the administration, said the president, will develop a proposal to merge, consolidate and reorganize the federal government, the first such proposed major restructuring since "the age of black-and-white TV." He did not estimate savings.

The president acknowledged that there can be no honest long-term deficit solution without trimming the entitlement programs - Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. He invited proposals to do so, but offered no details. His stated restriction on trimming Social Security - no "slashing (of) benefits for future generations" - was a political calculation, not a fiscal one. Congress must reduce benefits.

What he cannot support, said the president, is cutting the deficit by gutting federal investments in innovation and education, moves that would be self-defeating. The administration's challenge will be working with a new Republican House majority that seems intent on slashing spending so severely and indiscriminately that it could stall the economic recovery.

The nation awaits the details, but it should rally around the president's call for "our generation's Sputnik moment." The U.S. cannot surrender economic or technological leadership to any nation. That means investing in education, but wisely through continued incentives to "Race to the Top." It is unacceptable that one-quarter of the nation's students do not finish high school.

Government research and investment must play a part in building a functional high-speed rail system, developing clean energy technologies and expanding high-speed Internet service. It is time to heed the president's call to end the tax giveaway for Big Oil and invest in tomorrow's energy.

Free enterprise drives innovation, but government investment can sow the seeds.

A divided government can mean intransigence and stalemate or compromise and progress. The president has presented an opportunity to achieve the latter.