Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer talks about the Democratic Party's new economic agenda.



"It is called A Better Deal. It has three components. We're going raise people's wages and create better paying jobs. We're going to cut down on their everyday expenses they have to pay. And we're going to give them the tools they need to compete in the 21st Century," Schumer explained.



"It will unify the Democratic Party, because we are united on economic issues," Schumer said of the 'Better Deal' proposal. "And a bold, sharp-edged message, platform, policy, that talks about working people and how the system is rigged against them is going to resonate. And this is the first time we're going to have it, and our party is going to be unified."



"But we've had problems -- you know, we've had a problem with wage stagnation. You talk about better wages. We've had a problem with wage stagnation for the last 40 years. What can any piece of legislation do about that?" host George Stephanopoulos asked the Minority Leader.



"Well, we have researched this thoroughly and talked to all different kinds of people. And there are lots of things that we can do," Schumer said.



Schumer said Trump can't say he is going "drain the swamp" when he has embraced the Koch brothers.



"And let me just say one more thing about this. You know, Donald Trump campaigned sort of on this message. He was a populist. He campaigned against the establishment. As soon as he got into office, he embraced the Koch brother hard right and abandoned his plans to clean up Wall Street, to drain the swamp, to be tough on trade. We are going fill that gap in a way that's really going to resonate with the American people," he said.



Transcript, via ABC News' This Week:





STEPHANOPOULOS: You had a president though for eight years. You had control of Congress for part of that time. What took so long? And why didn't it happen during the campaign?



SCHUMER: Well, I don't know why it didn't happen in the campaign. We all take blame, not any one person. But now we have spent a lot of time working on this. And it's going to really impress the American people.



It is not going to be left or right. It is going to be totally focused on working people who realize, believe correctly, that the system is rigged against them, and not helping them with all the changes. Rapid changes, economic and social. And people ask, well, are you going appeal to the Obama coalition? You know, young people, LGBT, people of color? Or the Trump people -- Democrats who voted for Trump, blue collar voters? This will appeal to both.



STEPHANOPOULOS: But I have a different --



SCHUMER: It will unify the Democratic Party, because we are united on economic issues. And a bold, sharp-edged message, platform, policy, that talks about working people and how the system is rigged against them is going to resonate. And this is the first time we're going to have it, and our party is going to be unified.



STEPHANOPOULOS: But we've had problems -- you know, we've had a problem with wage stagnation. You talk about better wages. We've had a problem with wage stagnation for the last 40 years. What can any piece of legislation do about that?



SCHUMER: Well, we have researched this thoroughly and talked to all different kinds of people. And there are lots of things that we can do.



And let me just say one more thing about this. You know, Donald Trump campaigned sort of on this message. He was a populist. He campaigned against the establishment. As soon as he got into office, he embraced the Koch brother hard right and abandoned his plans to clean up Wall Street, to drain the swamp, to be tough on trade. We are going fill that gap in a way that's really going to resonate with the American people.



STEPHANOPOULOS: What are you going propose that Donald Trump can sign on to? Without his support, you're not -- this isn't going anywhere.



SCHUMER: Well, we are going to propose tomorrow -- we've already proposed a few things. A $1 trillion infrastructure plan. Trump, I don't know where he is on infrastructure but we're willing to work with him on that. We've proposed already a $15 minimum wage. Trump won't go for that. We've proposed a child care, a family leave proposal that works well.



Here's what we're going to propose tomorrow.



Number one, we're going to go after the drug companies. We will create a special, special that will just go after these drug companies when they raise prices so egregiously and people can't afford these drugs.



We're going to change the way companies can merge. We have these huge companies buying up other big companies. It hurts workers and it hurts prices. The old Adam Smith idea of competition, it's gone. So people hate it when their cable bills go up, their airline fees. They know that gas prices are sticky, you know, when the domestic price goes -- when the price for oil goes up on the markets, it goes it goes right up but it never goes down.



How the heck did we let Exxon and Mobil merge?



And that was Democrats.



STEPHANOPOULOS: As you know, inflation...



SCHUMER: So we're going to go after that and that will help the average person lower their costs.



And, finally, we're going to have, tomorrow, a very novel idea of how to create 10 million jobs. There are 10 million Americans looking for good-paying jobs. We're going to show them how to find them.



And that's just the beginning. Week after week, month after month, we're going to roll out specific pieces here, that are quite different than the Democratic Party you heard in the past. We were too cautious. We were too namby-pamby.



This is sharp, bold, and will appeal...



STEPHANOPOULOS: Some...



SCHUMER: -- to both the old Obama coalition, let's say, the young lady who's just getting out of college, and the Democratic voters who deserted us for Trump, the blue collar workers...



STEPHANOPOULOS: Some may wonder...



SCHUMER: -- economics, George, is our strength...



STEPHANOPOULOS: Some may wonder if...



SCHUMER: -- and we are going to go at it.



STEPHANOPOULOS: -- it's going to be bold enough. I mean even your New York colleague, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, talking about health care, says if you really want to get prices down, you have to go to single payer health care.



Will Democrats unify behind single payer health care?



SCHUMER: Well, our economic agenda -- we've talked so much about health care that we are not going to address that in this agenda.



We've been talking about it. And let me just say, the first thing we're going to do should -- first, I think that this -- the TrumpCare will not pass. It just is...



STEPHANOPOULOS: You think it's dead?



SCHUMER: I think it's very unlikely to pass, because it's rotten to the core. People are not for reducing taxes on rich people or getting rid of Medicaid, which is a very, very middle class, now, thing, as well as for poor people.



So the first things we're going to propose -- if the Republican -- and the Republicans hopefully will join us, once they abandon this rotten bill, is some cost-sharing, which the insurance companies say will help bring down premiums and stabilize the market, something else that Republicans have often supported, which is reinsurance, proposed by Tom Carper and Tim Kaine.



And Claire McCaskill has proposed something in the bare counties, B-A-R-E -- you can -- if you can't get insurance in those counties, you can get the same kind of health insurance we get.



Then we're going to look at broader things -- single payer is one of them...



STEPHANOPOULOS: So that is...



SCHUMER: -- Medicare...



STEPHANOPOULOS: -- on the table?



SCHUMER: -- well, a -- sure. Many things are on the table. Medicare for people above 55 is on the table. A buy-in to Medicare is on the table. A buy-in to Medicaid is on the table.



On the broader issues, we will start examining them once we stabilize the system.



And our Republican colleagues have said should -- even Mitch McConnell alluded to the fact that should their bill fail, they'll work with us these first stabilization things.



Then Democrats and Republicans, who will have different ideas, should sit down and talk about how we can improve the system. And the one thing we insist on, we not do what they did, which is just 10 Republicans, four Republicans in a room, not even including us. Regular order -- hearings, committees, go through the process.



But on this agenda, we are going to really shake things up and we're going to fill the vacuum that Donald Trump left when he campaigned on some of the things like this and then abandoned them for the hard right Koch brothers.