Quotes from Elaine Chao

Washington policymakers have to understand the adverse implications of their actions on job creation, and they must reorder some of their priorities.

We Americans typically are more positive about our individual futures, which we have some control over, than we are the nation's or the world's, which we see largely through the media prism.

America's private sector job creators need elected leaders to lead and get out of the way.

Around the time President Lyndon B. Johnson was declaring a War on Poverty in the 1960s, federal, state and local governments began accelerating a veritable War on the Private Sector.

To foster entrepreneurship, expansion and job creation, more leaders at all levels of government have to demonstrate some understanding of what it takes to build and grow businesses in the private sector.

Our private-sector work force is the most industrious, innovative, productive, and ambitious in the world.

The pursuit of excellence is a continuous process through life. Enjoy the pursuit.

The work of these women doesn't end when they return home from overseas, as one goal of the Peace Corps' mission is to help promote a better understanding of other cultures here in the United States.

News-free existence is not a serious proposal, but it is worth noting that while today's 24/7 media environment is wonderful in many ways, it can also be like drinking out of a fire hose and intensify a downward reinforcing cycle of despair.

Even if it's a national issue, the federal government cannot provide all the answers.

Washington's parasitic approach to the private sector must change for there to be widespread, near-term and enduring prosperity and job creation.

Those memories of living in a developing nation are part of who I am today and give me a profound understanding of the challenges of economic development - an understanding which will make my tenure as Peace Corps director, I hope, a very special one.

401k savings accounts have become so important in the landscape of retirement planning that their security and expansion became a top priority in formulating and implementing the Pension Protection Act of 2006 that was enacted during my tenure as the U.S. Secretary of Labor.

We need fair and free trade.

Confidence, capital, and new markets fuel entrepreneurship and job-generating expansion of existing businesses.

Confidence, capital, and credit fuel entrepreneurship and economic expansion.

To better deal with shortages of qualified applicants now and in the future, government policy makers need to acknowledge that government job training programs could stand improvement.

What out country is facing right now is a skills gap.

I love working in the garden.

Never far from my thoughts are memories of being a little girl in Queens, N.Y., our family of five crowded in a small one-bedroom apartment, struggling to learn English and survive a new life in a new country, America. We humbly and gratefully still recall the kindnesses shown by strangers and neighbors who became new friends.

Progress is being made, but a lot of women are realizing it is not what they envisioned.

We're a robust democracy here. That's the wonderful thing about this country.

We have a lot of employers who are looking for skilled workers and not being able to find them. And we have workers who lack the requisite skills to access these good-paying jobs in high growth industries.

We want to make sure that workers know their rights and that employers know their obligations. That is the best way to protect workers.