Elaine Chao

“America's competitive advantage lies in its human talent. All of us should be doing everything we can to cultivate and develop our work force.”

“Outside of Washington, D.C., most Americans aren't concerned with doing things 'big.' They're looking for less government spending, lower taxes, and good jobs.”

“Consider trade protectionism. It's been tried - and found wanting - since the Great Depression.”

“In normal times, laid-off workers are unemployed an average of eight weeks.”

“I will carry with me always the deep sense of what it feels like to be an outsider and how tough it was, how hard it was to adapt to this country.”

“People can voice their different points of view. We are also a country where there will be criticism.”

“The Obama administration's zeal to not 'waste a good crisis,' as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put it, has been stunning even for Washington insiders to behold.”

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

“Left-wing shareholder activists seek to leverage the mass economic power of institutional investors such as pension funds, whose managers are supposed to focus strictly on their fiduciary responsibilities to retirees.”

“When my mother, sisters and I arrived on the shores of America when I was 8 years old, the boat on which we came, a freighter, passed the Statue of Liberty.”

“My parents were very, very strict parents, and they were not used to this new, you know, American custom of letting your children sleep in someone else's house.”

“As we celebrate Women's History Month this March, it's important to remember the key role women have played in promoting a better understanding and relationships between our country and the rest of the world.”

“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.”

“The Obama administration likes to say that it is 'pro-worker.' But something is amiss when its labor priorities are forcing unionization and labor contracts on American workplaces, and denying union members information on how their dues money is spent.”

“We need long-term tax reform that promotes private sector job creation. And legislated mandates that kill jobs by raising the cost of payrolls need to be eliminated.”

“We have many rules and regulations that can be sometimes confusing and complicated. By reaching out to the employer community and educating them on what their responsibilities and obligations are to their work force, that, along, with strong enforcement, is the best way to protect workers.”

“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.”

“Every person - we want to make sure that every person who wants a job will indeed get one.”

“Three years after the four deepest previous recessions began - in 1953, 1957, 1973 and 1981 - employment was on average 4.7% higher than the pre-recession peak.”

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