Economy . After so many months of bumping along the bottom, will 2015 be the happy new year well be cheering for when we count down to midnight on december 31st. Thats the big question we have today as we look ahead on sunday morning futures. Already one potential candidate, jeb bush has announced hes actively exploring a run for the white house. Others like Elizabeth Warren have backers pushing them towards the field. The 2016 president ial race is starting to take shape and it is not even 2015 yet. John kasich served in congress for 18 years. He is now the governor from the buckeye state, ohio. Governor, good to have you on the program. Thanks so much for joining us. Glad to be with you. So many people talk about you as perhaps a candidate. Will you throw your name in the ring . Maria im focused on the budget here in ohio. Thats all im thinking about now. Weve got some good Economic News last week. We are up about 285,000 jobs in the last four years, which is really great. Our unemployment has dropped to 5 and we have to keep it going here in ohio because people think about ohio as the rust belt. I dont really like that term. We really are the new ohio now where we still love the Old Industries that we knew so well in ohio for the last 40 50 years, but now we are really focusing in addition to that on the new kind of industries that youre familiar with whether its Cloud Computing, Data Analytics, whether its advanced programs and health care or even energy. Thats what were focusing on here in ohio. So you know, in life you take your eye off the ball and you lose the ball game and im not interested in doing that here. Ive got a job to do at least in the very near term. Good for you, governor. You already have been quite successful. I want to ask you about that. Incomes are up in ohio. Exports set to have a record. Job retention up. New businesses being created. A lot of good things to talk about and yet we see people in the country even though the Economic Data is looking better on a National Level people are not feeling it. So i want to ask you about that as well as your priorities working with the president in the new congress. A lot to talk about with you this morning governor. Stay with us because first we want to take a look at both sides of the 2016 president ial field. Eric chandra joins us with that angle. Good morning, maria, fls one year, 10 months 11 days or 16,344 minutes. You can bet for each and everyone of them someone will be thinking about sitting behind that big desk in the oval office. Im back well she may be back, but you know hillary, never really went away. The Presumptive Democratic frontrunner remains far ahead. Even though her numbers have declined by 7 points in spring. The latest fox news poll shows mrs. Clinton not just 62 , the partys left wing favorite massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren who insists she will not run is at 12 . Vice President Joe Biden is at 10 . This is a really serious life changing decision and im going to take my time. I realize at some point end of this year early next year ill make a decision to really pursue this or to stand down. And then theres former Florida Governor jeb bush. Hes thrown the republican field into a tizzy with news that he may run. It appears that mr. Bush and mitt romney will have to duke it out at the top. Mr. Romney has 19 support, jeb bush 10 with Chris ChristieMike Huckabee at 8 . Rand paul 8 , scott walker 7 , ted cruz 5 . Most of the speculation is whether jeb bush will follow his father and uncle for a bid. Immigration and the common core curriculum. Bush strikes at Hillary Clinton, the close els of any of his republican rivals. If the election is now, she would win 4942 . You know at this stage any predictions are still a parlor game. Remember at this time leading up to the 2008 president ial race it seemed like a slam dunk for hillary. In december of 2006 she had almost three times more support than a freshman senator by the name of barack obama leading him 3312 which is the same amount warren now has. We all know how that one turned out. We sure do. Eric with the ratest therelatest there. Im with Governor John Kasich here. No republican governor has ever been elected to the presidency without winning ohio. What is it about ohio that is so important, do you think, in these races . I think, maria, were a snapshot of the country. I mean we have urban, suburban, rural. We are a very diversified state and the ability to communicate across the country can be reflected in a thumbnail in the state of ohio which makes ohio a very exciting place. I think it will hold true that republicans want to win the white house. Theyre going to have to come to ohio and theyre going to have to win. When you look at how the economy in ohio is changing, whats behind that. Cloud computing engineering, health care and technology really getting together. Because were focused on it, maria. Heres what we know, ohio nor a long time relied on the old line industries. We love that. Make new friends but keep the old. We love the Old Industries, but they are now getting into advanced manufacturing, bringing technology but we also know to create excitement in our state things like Cloud Computing and Data Analytics and advanced energy and the kinds of things that can flow from energy or from data centers thats the thing that gets young people excited. Thats the things that will draw people to our state. But, maria, we have a big challenge. Were working on work force. Were improving our education system, but we have to continue to promote entrepreneurship and new businesses, new startups and we have focused on helping Small Businesses to be more successful so you have to take a whole range of things in order to be successful. By the way beginning of the show you said people were pessimistic. They are pessimistic about the state of america but they have been you know very positive, over 60 of ohioans thinking were headed in the right direction. The key now, maria, is to have team work here in the state. If everybody ghets and keeps their own marbles and goes and hides in the corner we wont have the tax reform we need, we wont have the reform of social services we need so my job is to try to convince people that, you know, there is a better way to do things and were better when were unified than when were fighting. We have to think about what do we want to be remembered for. If we can put that into the quotient out here well continue to grow and transform ourselves into one of the great states in america and one of the great places that people can see around the world. Youve had job creation as a top priority and its been working. Let me ask you you would like this maria. Youre such a Smart Business person. Weve privatized or Economic Development operation. Weve created jobs for ohio. Theyve hired people that can speak about the sectors that we want to promote. So, for example, in Financial Services we have a Financial Service expert. You cant go to jamie dimon and ask him to give you a tutorial on the difference of a stock and a bond and recruit his business. We have people that can actually speak to the job creators and we move quickly and we are focused on the things we think will allow the state to rise economically. Its the most unique Economic Development program in the country, by the way. Understood. You bring a business background to the Governors Office which is amazing and really allow people to see really how you can put that to work in terms of luring businesses to the state. Let me ask you real quick, governor, before you go. What kind of priorities would you like to see the congress tackle when the new Congress Comes into office . You know, a lot of different debate on whether the president will veto what the congress will put on the table. Thats okay. Youve got to put your ideas out there. Youll find some where hell agree. Maria, im not pushing a balanced Budget Amendment to the federal constitution. We have to do this. Some republicans are iffy. Youve got to be kidding me. Were 18 trillion in the whole. The single Biggest Issue outside of values, personal responsibility, team work, believing in a higher power the most important thing we can do to the congress is to lock them in so they have to make choices and balance a budget and then at the same time of course tax reform that would encourage people to invest in america and not to take their money some other place in the world. So, you know theyve got to do their job down there present the ideas. Thats what politics is about. Its a battle of ideas and get them out there. Hopefully tax reform will be high on the priority list. Governor. Good to have you on the program. Thanks so much. Maria, you are yo the best. Thanks so much. You rock. Congratulations. Governor kasich joining us. Official combat missions in afghanistan end in three days. Lieutenant general is with us on what that means for the global war on terrorism. I hope youll follow me on twitter maria bar taro mow. Yknow what my business philosophy is, reynolds . 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I dont leave the shop anymore. [ male announcer ] get a 4 week trial plus 100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. Go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again. Well the official end of u. S. Combat operations in afghanistan is this wednesday, new years eve. Well be leaving just a little more than 10,000 advisors diplomats and training units behind. Ban kimoon is calling for 2015 to be a year of Global Action against terrorism. Retired Army Lieutenant general Daniel Bolger is the author of why we lost, a generals inside account of the iraq and afghanistan wars. General, good to have you on the program. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you maria. Can you characterize the state of affairs . Today theyre complete in their combat mission. Most of the combat from last year has been done by the afghans. Our forces have suffered a lot less losses lately, the poor afghans have lost over 4500 soldiers and Police Killed this year which is the highest number of the war. Theres a heck of a lot of fighting going on in afghanistan in the south and the east. The taliban is in control. Theyre not interested in negotiating, theyre interested in winning. What about the strategy and drawing down that strategy now. Is now the right time and do you worry that we are still leaving men and women behind and perhaps with not enough support perhaps leaving them in harms way . Maria im absolutely concerned about that and i think every american should be. Leaving 10,000 americans in a land locked country where your lines of comply go through pakistan and russia neither of which is our friends, is very very dangerous. Right now the enemy is not active because the weather is very cold, the mountains are covered in snow and ice but that will break come the spring. Come the spring there will be a taliban offensive. At that point well find out if the Afghan Forces weve been training for 13 years can hold and i will tell you, its he going to be a very very tough situation and those americans are going to be at great risk. It feels like things have gotten worse in terms of terrorism and the bad actors out there. Is that a fair statement . Well, terrorists fill vacuums and when the United States pulls back as we tried to do in iraq although weve had to send forces back in as weve publicly stated were going to go 10,000 this year, 5,000 next year and down to the embassy after that. Terrorists see that as weakness and they advance. In that regard theyre taking advantage of what they see as a power vacuum. So we drastically increase the number of troops on the ground and as a result u. S. Soldiers, american deaths, those numbers have gone up attacks on u. S. Soldiers. Well, if we thats thats the challenge. When we go into these countries maria, if we take the lead and fight, weve got the best military in the world. They will fight and take the fight to the enemy, but the problem is thats a shortterm solution because were not willing to stay there for 10, 20, 30 years. These local folks like isis, the taliban, they will wait us out and when we draw down, they move in. What are your observations about isis in iraq right now . I mean there i guess is one piece of evidence that it feels like its gotten worse. I think its something we all need to be concerned about. Weve moved in and took over all the areas that we had cleared in 2003 to 2011. That eight year fight there. All those sunni arab districts like mosul and the Anbar Province have all been taken over by isis effective control. They are also lying low for the winter. The winter in iraq is not as bad as afghanistan but its very rainy and cold. Youll see a spring offensive from them as well. We will see if our advisors and our air power has been able to do something to stop that. General, can you look ahead for us into 2015 . What are you expecting in terms of afghanterghanistan and iraq . There will be more fighting. Were supporting a shia dominated government. Well see if we can get any sunni people back in. In afghanistan it is a grim future. That landlocked country, the countries around it particularly pakistan harbor a lot of Border Crossers who are going to come in with the spring and there will be a taliban offensive. That one were going to have to watch very closely. The United States may have to put in more air support or special ops to deal with what will surely be a strong taliban offensive this spring. Not something that you want to see. General, good to have you on the program. Thanks very much for your insights today. Thank you. General bolger joining us. 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You should not receive prevnar 13 if youve had a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine or its ingredients. If you have a weakened immune system, you may have a lower response to the vaccine. Common side effects were pain, redness, or swelling at the injection site. Limited arm movement, fatigue, head ache muscle or joint pain less appetite, chills, or rash. Even if youve already been vaccinated with another pneumonia vaccine, prevnar 13 ® may help provide additional protection. Get this one done. Ask your healthcare professional about prevnar 13 ® today. Well the economy has begun to grow once again even if it is a slow pace. Workers wages, however, have gone virtually nowhere, but when the ball drops in times square at 12 00 a. M. On thursday can we pop the champaign corks with the feeling that better days are in fact ahead. We have a professor of economics from harvard university. Ken, good to have you on the program. Welcome. Seasons greetings to you, maria. And to you. So what would you expect for 2015. Things seem to be Getting Better from your standpoint . They do. We have very solid broad based growth particularly in the United States, and i think we might even see more upward movement in wages at last. So what are you looking for in terms of the catalysts to actually move wages . Thats been the one area that keep people feeling just not great about their own situations. Well, i think weve had a situation where wages wanted to go down during the recession but theres sort of a floor on them and i think now the actual wages firms want to pay really caught up and are moving ahead. Firms are hiring and is increasing and eventually firms will be competing with each other. Wages are going to be going up. Not for everybody at the same time, of course, but i think its going to be more broad based in 2015. You know, still slow going but i think the directions clear. How do you think the Federal Reserve sees this