In his inauguration speech earlier today, President Barack Obama harkened back to times of sacrifice, like the Great Depression, and to service, like the call from John Kennedy, evoking themes familiar to those who lived through those eras.

He asked the nation to unite to overcome today’s challenges, be it the faltering economy or the war. While he did not specify what sacrifices might be required, there were indications that he will examine governmental programs carefully and see where changes, reductions or eliminations need to be made.

“Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new.  But those values upon which our success depends—honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism—these things are old,” he said.

Courage was Kennedy’s motto in 1961, when he said the country would “bear any burden” to bring democracy to the world. Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 famously told the Depression-wracked nation that the only thing it had to fear was “fear itself” and urged the country to throw itself into the work that the government would provide.

Although Obama did not mention his economic stimulus program, which he hopes to sign into law by Presidents Day, government-provided work is part of it. Today he stressed volunteerism and sacrifice.

“It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours,” Obama said.

John Rother, AARP’s director of policy, saw in the speech a new “era of responsibility that is saying to everybody that we need to change some of the things we do—look at the cost of health care, work a little longer, or work and volunteer more in the community.”

In his reference to the economic distress, Obama called the nation’s health care “too costly.” Obama has pledged to overhaul health care; he has not abandoned that pledge even as the nation’s economic difficulties have mounted.

“Clearly [Obama is] getting the public ready for some tough calls in health care, where everybody wants less expense,” Rother said. “And that means we have to be more prudent in our use.”

Obama also sought to transform the debate about the role of government. The question,  he said, is not whether government is too big or too small, but whether it works at all— “whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end.”

Brookings Institution senior scholar Barry Bosworth, an expert on economics, suggested that current retiree pensions will not be affected by Obama’s plans, but that health care might be an area of concern. “How do we extend the coverage without increasing the cost?” Bosworth said. “That does imply some restrictions may be forthcoming.”

Obama called for a return to a “new era of responsibility” with duties “to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.”

While older Americans have a tradition of volunteer service, difficult economic times may make it harder for working Americans to volunteer, according to Robert Clark, a North Carolina State University professor and an expert on aging. “What about the folks that are working, as they are trying to put in more hours, do they have more time or less time for service?” he asked.

Clark noted that more people ages 55 to 65 are choosing to work, rather than retire early. “There are more of them working and fewer of them have time and resources to do volunteer work,” Clark said. “For those people who have sufficient income and have made the decision to be out of the labor market, that’s a separate group. There are a variety of groups who have the time, desire or ability to do volunteer work.”

Elaine S. Povich is based in Washington and writes about politics and public policy.