President Trump will tackle healthcare policy before pivoting to tax reform despite saying last month that he was done trying to repeal and replace Obamacare.
“We’re going to have a phenomenal tax reform [plan], but I have to do healthcare first. I want to do it first to really do it right,” he told Fox Business’ host Maria Bartiromo in an interview that will air Wednesday.
“Healthcare is going to happen at some point. Now if it doesn’t start fast enough, I’ll start the taxes. But the tax reform and the tax cuts are better if I can do healthcare first,” Trump said.
In order to facilitate healthcare changes, Trump said he will push back his tax reform deadline, which had been August. The two policy reforms will be completed by year’s end.
“Hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars” will be saved by reforming healthcare, which would boost results when taking on tax policy, Trump explained.
“Obamacare is a total mess. So we’re saving tremendous amounts of money on healthcare when we get this done, number one, and most importantly, actually, we’re going to have great healthcare, and all of that savings goes into the tax,” Trump added. “If you don’t do that, you can’t put any of the savings into the tax cuts and the tax reform.”
Trump did not say how he plans to reform either healthcare or taxes, and didn’t say whether he would leave most of it to Congress or take executive action.
The full interview will air on Fox Business between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. Wednesday.
