Reid Ribble: “Let's talk a little bit about that investment. I think the idea here is we often think that the investment has to come…”

“Let's talk a little bit about that investment. I think the idea here is we often think that the investment has to come from Washington, DC. But the key to reducing unemployment is restoring private investment, as this chart shows. Every single time that private investment goes down, unemployment rises. Private investment goes down, unemployment rises. And there is a key linchpin to our economy, and it's related to private investment. Companies like mine and like my colleague from Oregon, his company. If we don't modify the tax code, if we don't fix the regulatory environment where there's so much uncertainty, if we don't address these things, then businesses are afraid and fearful to invest. And right now that's exactly what we're seeing in the U.S. economy. There's more money sitting on the sidelines than ever. We hear about it every single day. And that fear factor is keeping our economy from moving forward. And without private investment, it's difficult to drive unemployment levels lower. And we need to drive unemployment levels lower as quickly and as in fast order as we possibly can to put Americans back to work. I agree also with your comments about the spending habits and how we have to address the key drivers of our debt, which include both the mandatory spending in entitlements like Medicare and Social Security as well as the large discretionary spending in defense. It isn't an either/or. It must be a both/and.…”