Newly appointed White House chief of staff William Daley said Sunday that he is taking a wait-and-see attitude when judging the GOP’s proposals to cut $55 million from the budget, adding that
severe cuts are not always the answer when a business is not doing well.
“You know, it's that old saying: 'Where's the beef?' Let's see exactly the cuts they're talking about," he said on "Face the Nation." “We all agree there must be cuts to this government. And again, you're going to see this president lay out a very substantial cut already.”
In his first television interview since joining the Obama administration, Daley also said President Barack Obama is open to tweaking the healthcare law — but that he would not again go to battle over reform.
“The president has said he's open to changes to this,” Daley said. "People have suggestions on how to make it better, but he is not in favor of refighting this fight."
Daley also said healthcare reform criticism he made last year was with the "politics of the movement" and not with the bill.
”I thought it was a very difficult climate to try to accomplish what they tried to,” he said. “And I think the results, because of the misinterpretation of healthcare by many people, had a negative impact on Democrats.
”I absolutely believe, having been in business and hearing from business people, the importance of the need for the reform in healthcare,” Daley said. “It was the business community that was really saying to the politicians, ‘This is costing us too much. It's too much of a wet blanket on the economy.’”
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