This Monday the first six months of Javier Milei’s management as president of the Nationand the former president of the Central Bank and one of Javier Milei’s main advisors, Federico Sturzenegger praised the libertarian through the social network X (formerly Twitter).
In an extensive thread, the economist said that “you cannot start without considering the fiscal surplus. If a year ago we had said that the government would start with a 30% reduction in spending, it would have been hilarious because it was implausible. But here we are. “It is an extraordinary achievement that is the guarantee of macro-ordering.”
He also highlighted a “cultural turn” that makes it possible. «Public spending – he stated in a post – was an alibi to support a series of political expenses. ‘I’m going to use your money to help you’ they told you. But the reality was that they used your money to help themselves. That is the biggest scam in progressive discourse. That’s why the fit is popular. Because it was understood that it is giving money back to the people. The ‘there is no money’ is: there is no money for politics to continue exploiting you, while the AUH+food card reach historical highs.
Sturzenegger referred to the brake on public works and he stressed that his fellow economists assure that “it is not sustainable.” But, far from being a noble cause, he stated that “public works was a mechanism for transferring resources from the nation to the provinces. Another of the multiple mechanisms that served the central power to subdue federalism: I finance your work in exchange for obedience.
He added that “the transfer of public works to the provinces improves control, will make corruption more costly -because it will bring it closer to the users themselves-, and will cause international organizations to demand better fiscal performance from the provinces (today they are accomplices of the system of domination).
In this context, he highlighted that “Milei is the first, in many years, who believes and wants Argentina to be a truly federal country. Not interfering in the politics of the provinces is not a lack of understanding, it is believe in a federal republic with different visions«.
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«The president also questions us about the scope of public goods. What should the State provide? The garbage collection service? The non-contentious judicial succession service? Should you build houses? “If they are things that the private sector does better,” he stated.
Along the same lines, he said that “the president has resolved to discuss all issues: without taboos (SIC). That is why the Ministry of Women or the Institute of Family Agriculture is encouraged to close. Without fears. “Society celebrates because it saw the waste of expenses, without participating in the party other than paying for it.”
Sturzenegger also referred to the bill to recompose pensions which received half a sanction in the Chamber of Deputies this week: «The need to take care of the fiscal balance is also beginning to be established. Congress can legislate more spending. But without funding, it is a somewhat childish request, like that of a child asking his mother for a gift without considering the cost. When the president says that he will veto any legislative proposal that does not contemplate his financing, the only thing he has is an adult attitude. “An adult does weigh the costs of the decisions he makes.”
He took the opportunity to draw a contrast between Milei and the legislative branch. «Today we have a Congress with children’s proposals, and an adult president. No matter how much Congress speaks like an adult with high-sounding and polished speeches. I hope Congress matures. Luckily there are more and more voices there that show adulthood,” said Sturzenegger, adding that “the Congressional clerkship is over.”
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Besides, He said that the objective is not to make public companies profitable since the State cannot do it but the private sector can and that is why they will be transferred. «A few years ago I evaluated with Nicolás Gadano the privatization of areas that YPF had abandoned. The private sector later achieved a 25% return with them. That is why the objective is to accelerate the transfer of these assets to the private sector so that it can put all that capital to production,” he said.
And he concluded that “It’s been an amazing six months. But not because of DNU-70, or the discussion of the base law, but because of the Copernican turn that the government has managed to give to the public debate. “A lot, considering that it is a government that has only been in office for 6 months.”
