Politics and views in the United States.

President-elect Trump rethinks his ability to lower prices, mass deportations could spur economic losses on par with the Great Recession, and Sen. Bernie Sanders says he'll work with the Trump administration to raise the federal minimum wage.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2024 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

We will end inflation and make America affordable again.

We're going to get the prices down.

We have to get them down.

It's too much groceries, cars, everything.

In his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly promised to quickly slash costs for American families and has since said he won because of grocery prices.

Now Trump tells Time magazine that it's actually very hard to bring those prices down and says he won't promise it'll happen.

Trump says more domestic oil production and fewer supply chain issues could help, but he also says he can't guarantee Americans won't pay more because of tariffs on imports, another shift since the campaign.

New data projects that Trump's plan to deport 10 million undocumented migrants would shrink the economy by nearly 7 percent.

Jeremy Robbins with the American Immigration Council says that's as bad as what happened during the Great Recession.

The costs of mass deportation would be tremendous, not just because it's so expensive to deport people but because it would wreak havoc on the economy.

Migrant workers are critical in construction, agriculture, meatpacking and health care.

The deportations themselves would cost hundreds of billions, and Trump's transition team has vowed to cut federal funding for any local governments that won't cooperate.

Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders says he hopes to work with the Trump administration to raise the federal minimum wage of $7.25.

I would suggest it be $17 an hour, but I hope that we can work in a bipartisan way to finally accomplish that goal.

The last increase in the federal minimum wage was in 2009.

Meanwhile, worker-owned cooperatives are backing labor unions seeking greater workplace democracy at companies like Starbucks, REI and other retail outlets.

Sarah Aceffa with the Coalition for Ownership and Power says worker-owned businesses help improve economic and racial equity, a goal state legislatures should support.

There tends to be quite a bit of state infrastructure to support lots of the business world, but it would be great to see even more state infrastructure to support worker-owned businesses because it is such a special model.

The American Postal Workers Union opposes service cuts, including ending pickups for communities more than 50 miles from a regional hub and stopping some deliveries.

Oregon-based union member Daniel Cortez says too many rural areas are already losing their post offices.

To think that eliminating services, reducing standards, basically providing the American people with less reliable service is somehow going to make money, it's nonsense.

And reports say Trump's defense pick is likely to release the woman who accused him of rape from a confidentiality agreement.

Pete Hegseth paid the woman to settle the charge in 2017.

I'm Katherine Carley for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.