Trump discusses tax reform, healthcare, and The Wall with WaPo

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In addition to his replacement plan for the ACA, also known as Obamacare, Trump said he will target pharmaceutical companies over drug prices and demand that they negotiate directly with Medicaid and Medicare.

“They’re politically protected but not anymore,” he said of pharmaceutical companies.

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Trump warned Republicans that if the party splinters or slows his agenda, he is ready to use the power of the presidency — and Twitter — to usher his legislation to passage.

“The Congress can’t get cold feet because the people will not let that happen,” Trump said during the interview with The Post.

Trump said his plan for replacing most aspects of Obama’s health-care law is all but finished. Although he was coy about its details — “lower numbers, much lower deductibles” — he said he is ready to unveil it alongside Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

“It’s very much formulated down to the final strokes. We haven’t put it in quite yet but we’re going to be doing it soon,” Trump said. He noted that he is waiting for his nominee for secretary of health and human services, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), to be confirmed. That confirmation rests with the Senate Finance Committee, which has not yet scheduled a hearing.

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“I think we will get approval. I won’t tell you how, but we will get approval. You see what’s happened in the House in recent weeks,” Trump said, referencing his tweet during a House Republican move to gut their independent ethics office, which along with widespread constituent outrage was cited by some members as a reason the gambit failed.

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“We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” Trump said. “There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.”

People covered under the law “can expect to have great health care. It will be in a much simplified form. Much less expensive and much better.

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“It’s not going to be their plan,” he said of people covered under the current law. “It’ll be another plan. But they’ll be beautifully covered. I don’t want single-payer. What I do want is to be able to take care of people,” he said Saturday.

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When asked how exactly he would force drug manufacturers to comply, Trump said part of his approach would be public pressure “just like on the airplane,” a nod to his tweets about Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet, which Trump said was too costly.

Trump waved away the suggestion that such activity could lead to market volatility. “Stock drops and America goes up,” he said. “I don’t care. I want to do it right or not at all.”He added that drug companies “should produce” more products in the United States.

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On his plan for new tax cuts, Trump said “We’re getting very close” to putting together legislation. His advisers and Ryan met last week and have been working from his campaign’s plan and from congressional proposals to slash current rates.

“It’ll probably be 15 to 20 percent for corporations. For individuals, probably lower. Great middle-class tax cuts,” Trump said.

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On corporate tax rates, “We may negotiate a little, but we want to bring them down and get as close to 15 percent as we can so we can see a mushrooming of jobs moving back.”

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Briefly touching on immigration, Trump said that building a border wall and curbing illegal immigration remains at the top of his to-do list and he is spending significant time looking at ways to begin various projects, both with Congress and through executive action. But he did not disclose what was to come on those fronts.

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