WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President-elect Donald Trump (all times EST):
12:35 p.m.
President-elect Donald Trump says a replacement for “Obamacare” will be offered with the confirmation of his health secretary.
Trump says at a Wednesday news conference that his plan for President Barack Obama’s health care law would be “repeal and replace,” adding that it would be “essentially simultaneously.”
Trump called the law “a complete and total disaster” and said it was “imploding.” He argued that Republicans would do doing a “tremendous service” for Democrats by replacing the law.
Trump has repeatedly said that repealing and replacing “Obamacare” was a top priority, but he has never fully explained how he planned to do it. Speaker Paul Ryan has said that the House would seek to take both steps “concurrently.”
But Trump’s promise to repeal and replace the health care law “essentially simultaneously,” even in the same day, week or hour, is almost certainly impossible to achieve.
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12:25 p.m.
Donald Trump is recommitting to plans to impose a border tax on manufacturers who shutter plants and move production abroad.
Trump says at a Wednesday news conference: “There will be a major border tax on these companies that are leaving and getting away with murder.”
Border taxes may help retain jobs, but they carry the risk of increasing prices for consumers.
The president-elect has been meeting with chief executives and touting commitments by United Technologies and others to keep jobs in the United States. Such moves have done little so far to move the dial on job growth for the broader U.S. economy, although Trump stressed that he was using these deals to set a new tone that offshoring would be penalized.
Trump says: “What really is happening is the word is now out.”
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