Marc Short, President Trump's legislative affairs director, is pushing for Congress to pass tax reform by the end of the year, despite efforts by the president and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellMomentum growing among Republicans for Supreme Court vote before Election Day Trump expects to nominate woman to replace Ginsburg next week Video of Lindsey Graham arguing against nominating a Supreme Court justice in an election year goes viral MORE (R-Ky.) to curb that expectation.

"We need it to happen this year. We need to turn this economy around," he said on "Fox & Friends." "It's begun to turn under the president's leadership and rolling back the regulatory state."

"The economy grew only 1.8 percent during the Obama years — the lowest since the Great Depression for any president. We need to really boost it by making sure we provide tax relief to the American people and help keep jobs here in America. And so we need it done this year."

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At a news conference on Monday, Trump and McConnell said that, while they hoped to overhaul the tax code by the end of the calendar year, doing so may take longer than they have previously claimed.

“I would like to see it be done this year,” Trump said. “But don’t forget it took years for the Reagan administration to get taxes done — I’ve been here for nine months.”

“We could have a long way to go but that’s okay," he added.

Trump unveiled a broad series of tax cuts last month that called for a massive reduction in the corporate tax rate, slashing the number of individual tax brackets from seven to three and doing away with the estate tax.

Republican lawmakers are crafting more detailed legislative proposals, but they must first agree on a budget, a vote which could come in the Senate by the end of the week. Short said Tuesday that he was confident Congress would reach a budget agreement.

"We hope that the vote is completed before the end of this week. Unfortunately, it looks like this will again be another partisan vote. We hope the Democrats will partner with us."