treasury secretary mnuchin was on your air yesterday and said that he thought he could have a bill signed by the president by december. that s what they always say. but they keep on moving the goal posts. i heard back in march, that a number of lobbyists fell good about tax reform and they were further along on tax reform than on healthcare reform and look what happened with the healthcare effort. i think that mcconnell is right in pointing out that the obama administration did not get healthcare and dodd-frank until the second year of his administration. steve: what drives me crazy about this you have it right in terms of their attitude, but
sheperd smith. sarah huckabee sanders giving an off camera briefing to reporters right now. but the white house embargoed the audio until after it s over. today is a key deadline in the republican healthcare effort. we ll take you live to the white house and capitol hill. that s coming up on shepherd smith reporting. julie: one of the sticking points for a number of republican holdouts on the senate healthcare bill is funding to address the nation s growing opioid epidemic. majority leader mitch mcconnell trying to get senators back on board by adding $45 billion to the bill for addiction treatments and prevention. trace gallagher is live with more on that. hi, trace. reporter: for sure the opioid epidemic is a top priority for the jump administration and with good reason. last year 30,000 americans died from an opioid overdose.
away in the years ahead. keep in mind, republicans cannot lose but two votes. not a single democrat is expected to support this measure. senate gop leaders have said they plan to vote sometime next week. the party s chief vote counter, the texas senator, john cornyn, earlier today told fox news it s not a perfect bill and that his colleagues need to be realistic. we have to deal with the art of the possible here. it s not going to be something that each one of us will like standing alone. but this is the best we ve been able to do with the hand we ve been dealt. we can t afford to fail. shepard: can t afford to fail. politically speaking, there s a lot at stake for his party. president trump put it at the forefront of his campaign promises. repeal and replace obamacare. five months in the trump presidency with a republican controlled congress, there s no healthcare effort or any healthcare effort that has failed thus far in the house. another that barely passed.
do you believe that kind of growth is sustainable, the minimum of 3%? i certainly do, assuming that the congress passes the tax reform, assuming that we implement the regulatory reform. neil: what if that is delayed? you worry they re not moving fast on that. maybe they can t. if that doesn t materialize, delayed, what then? every day that goes by is a day that the congress being lackadaisical costs american business and american workers money. it s very, very sad that just for partisan reasons they re playing that game. neil: it s republicans, right? the bickering in the senate among the healthcare effort that you re trying to lead, right? with the problem ironically be, even in with republicans in charge of the house and the senate, to say nothing where you are at the white house, that they don t get it done? are you worried about that?
complicated healthcare. one critic of the healthcare effort sounded more upbeat about the next big push. we re in the information gathering mode right now. i can tell you what most americans need and want, they need lower intrusion from the federal government in their lives. they need lower taxes so that they can take more of their paycheck home. the senate s top democrat, chuck schumer, doesn t send ready to work with president trump on tax reform. he s been captured but the right regard wealthy special interests. that s who loved his proposal on the trump care. because it gave huge tax cuts to the rich. if they do the same thing on tax reform and the overwhelming majority of the cuts go to the corporate and special interests, they ll lose out. the biggest threat to tax reform may be the lobbyist