National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Stivers said it was a "clear" mistake for the GOP to tackle healthcare first, telling the Washington Examiner "it's time to move on" to tax reform.
"In hindsight it's clear," Stivers told the Examiner. "But it is what it is. You had to do them in some order."
Further, Stivers said he doubts healthcare will resurface, calling it "the hardest of all the topics we were dealing with."
"It's time to move on to things we can get done and the Senate can get done," he told the Examiner. "We have precious time given to us by our voters.
"In the end, the American people, I think, are willing to forgive us for not getting everything done, but they're not willing to accept us getting nothing done," Stivers said. "It raises the stakes on tax reform. It raises the stakes on infrastructure. It raises the stakes on some welfare reform that we're going to do as part of tax reform."