Kasich: Nation's Economic Recovery 'Weakest Since World War II'

(MSNBC/"Morning Joe")

By Sandy Fitzgerald | Friday, 05 February 2016 11:21 AM EST

GOP presidential candidate John Kasich downplayed the latest jobs report that shows wages rising while unemployment is below 5 percent, calling the economic recovery the "weakest since World War II."

"I'm thrilled to see that anything is happening with wages because they've been stagnant for so long, but you can't have this kind of anemic growth and get to where we want to get to," the Ohio governor told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.

"The problem is everything is a cycle," he continued. "We've got to lift the economy because at some point, it starts to trend down again . . . we've seen a suppression of activity and that's why it's even more important for the U.S. economy to grow stronger, to help pull some of the rest of the world out of the ditch.

"It's good that the wages are up, but frankly the recovery is too weak. It doesn't matter whether you are a Republican or Democrat, it's just too weak."

Also on Friday's show, Kasich responded to comments made by Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders during Thursday night's primary debate concerning Wall Street, given his own history with Lehman Brothers.

"I ran a two-man office in Columbus, Ohio, and people accused me of running Lehman Brothers," Kasich said of his position until the company's collapse in 2008, when he returned to politics.

And he admitted that there is "human avarice" that is not good on Wall Street, but "everybody there isn't a crook, and everybody there isn't doing horrible things. It's just that whenever value becomes less and greed becomes more we get out of balance."

Kasich also outlined his plans for his first days in the Oval Office, should he win the presidency.

"I want to have a package that will go to Congress in the first 100 days and it would include regulatory reform, lower taxes for individuals and for businesses, and a fiscal path to a balanced budget over time. And we would have to deal with the border, I want to get that done and I want to start the movement towards fixing Social Security."