There is "universal consent" to get tax reform legislation accomplished this year, and the measures will include tax cuts as well, White House chief economic adviser Gary Cohn said Wednesday.
"Yesterday was actually a very good day for us on tax reform," Cohn told Fox News' "Fox & Friends," noting that on Tuesday, President Donald Trump had several Republican leaders in for a meeting at the White House, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, along with House leaders and administration officials to hammer out a schedule and time frame.
"Yesterday, we talked about a very robust program where we're going to have reform and cuts," said Cohn. "We need to simplify the tax system in the United States. We need to it be able to have American citizens go back to their kitchen table to do their taxes.
"It shouldn't be where you have to hire a tax planner or buy some software to do your taxes," he added.
Obamacare repeal is an important factor in tax reform legislation, and on Wednesday, the president will visit Cincinnati, where he will visit with people who have been hurt by Obamacare.
"These are families losing their insurance or have had the insurance premium skyrocket, being a part of Obamacare," said Cohn, pointing out that on Tuesday, Anthem announced it will pull out of Ohio's insurance marketplace in 2018 leaving 18 counties without any insurers.
"They are the victims of Obamacare," said Cohn. "They want to buy insurance but they can't because there are no providers."
Meanwhile, Trump won't agree with lawmakers who want him to just allow Obamacare to die off so Democrats will join in and work on a new plan, said Cohn.
"I don't think it is the president's agenda to let it die and leave people that want to have good health insurance to be without health insurance," said Cohn.
Americans want coverage, but insurers are pulling out "because people can sign up for insurance the day they get sick," Cohn continued.
"That is not the way insurance works. You buy insurance, you pay premiums, when you need it you get your costs covered. The way Obamacare works, you don't buy insurance until you need it, then you pay for insurance."
Trump will also be talking about inland waterways during his visit in Ohio, as part of this week's push on infrastructure, said Cohn.
"Tomorrow we have governors and mayors, bipartisan governors and mayors here, and on Friday, we go to the Department of Transportation to talk about roads, bridges, rails," Cohn continued.
"One of the other objectives we have is the approval process. Right now it takes 10 years to get any infrastructure project approved in the United States. We're going from 10 to two philosophy. We want to cut time frame from a 10-year approval process to two years.
"We want agencies, government agencies to go through the process to work with each other and get approval processes timely as possible."