We need to reform our legal systems so the people, on the one hand, can get justice. On the other hand, the justice system doesn't affect the flows of capital.

And we've heard that rhetoric, haven't we, tax the rich? The rich hire lawyers and accountants for a reason, to stick you with the tab.

Investment means you're purchasing something, and somebody has to make that which you purchase and sell that which you purchase. And that's how the economy works.

If a construction worker has got more money in his pocket, he's going to demand an additional good or a service. And when they demand that additional good or a service, somebody has to produce the good or a service. And when somebody produces a good or a service, somebody is more likely to keep a job or find work.

You know what else I think? You know what else I think when they say, tax the rich? Most rich people are able to avoid taxes, and if you can't raise enough money from taxing the rich, guess who pays the taxes? Yes, you do.

That's why you've got to be careful about this rhetoric, we're only going to tax the rich. You know who the — the rich in America happen to be the small business owners. That's what that means.

The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway.

Pennsylvania's unemployment rate is 5.1 percent. That's good news for people who are trying to find jobs.

This economy of ours is steady and strong. It's steady and strong. It's steady and strong, which means people are going back to work.

We've got — John Biagas is with us. John, thank you for coming. Newport News, Virginia. Newport News, Virginia. John purchased his business in 1997. He took a gamble and said, I'm going to buy the business from the previous owner. I think he said they might have had a million dollars' worth of sales in 1997 — they're over $14 million now. That's pretty good growth, isn't it, in a five-year period of time?

We have overcome a recession. That means things are going backwards.

We've been through a recession. That means things are going backwards.

We need to make sure that we have legal reform. Junk and frivolous lawsuits make it awfully difficult for people to find work here in the United States.

Heck, we're 5 percent of the world's population, which means there's 95 percent of the people ready for products that say, "Made in the USA."

That's what we're here to discuss. It's an economic lesson. But we're not using PhD's. Well, we're using PhD's in the sense that we're talking to entrepreneurs who are on the front lines of making capital decisions every day.

We had some CEOs that weren't honest with their shareholders and their employees. And we passed tough laws that said, we're not going to tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of America. You're now beginning to see on your TV screens what we're talking about. People are being held to account. And that hurt our economy.

And we began to recover from the attacks on September the 11th because we're a strong people. We're resilient because there's an ownership society, a culture of ownership in America.

I want to remind you right quick what this country has been through, and the challenges this economy had faced over the last three years. First, we went through a recession. That means we were going backwards.

Hopefully, as the Georgia economy approves — improves — and I'm confident it will — there will be opportunities for business opportunities.

Recession means that people's incomes, at the employer level, are going down, basically, relative to costs, people are getting laid off.

The march to war affected the people's confidence. It's hard to make investment. See, if you're a small business owner or a large business owner and you're thinking about investing, you've got to be optimistic when you invest. Except when you're marching to war, it's not a very optimistic thought, is it? In other words, it's the opposite of optimistic when you're thinking you're going to war. War is not conducive to — for investment.

I have been saying that this economy looks pretty strong, and today 112,000 new jobs were created last month — a report that 112,000 new jobs were created last month. And that's good.

We want to make sure our wallets all across the country are healthy.

To serve the economic needs of our country, we must also reform our immigration laws. Reform must begin by confronting a basic fact of life and economics. Some of the jobs being generated in America's growing economy are jobs American citizens are not filling. This past week, I proposed a new temporary worker program that would match willing foreign workers with willing American employers, when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs. If an American employer is offering a job that American citizens are not willing to take, we ought to welcome into our country a person who will fill that job.

Unemployment dropped today to 5.7 percent.

We had a problem that fall when it turned out some of our corporate citizens failed to live up to the responsibilities of leadership. They didn't tell the truth to their shareholders and their employees. That affected the psyche of the American investor. You know, capitalism is only as strong as the integrity of the people involved in the process. And these leaders will tell you that you've got to be open with your employees. Otherwise, they're not going to work for you very hard.