Argentina’s president says he cut public spending by 30 percent in real terms during his first month in office, and that the budget has stayed balanced for more than two years. Javier Milei made the claim to journalist Ismael Cala in an interview of over an hour recorded in Buenos Aires for Cala’s program The Abundance Revolution. The figures are Milei’s own, and the release announcing the interview does not test them.
That release, issued on June 26 through PR Newswire by Cala’s side, describes an encounter in which “economics and politics took a backseat” to what it calls a human and spiritual portrait of the president. Cala is a 14-time bestselling author who spent years at CNN en Español.
The numbers Milei cited
Milei said the consolidated fiscal deficit stood at 15% of GDP when he took office. On poverty, he said: “We lowered poverty by 29 percentage points, lifting nearly 14 million Argentines out of poverty.” For children, he put the poor share at 70% before and 42% now. Asked why he did not dollarize right away, he said Argentines prefer to hold pesos because the currency strengthened.
He described the Ministry of Human Capital as a new model of social assistance, drawing on the economist Gary Becker, and attacked traditional welfare as “perpetuating slavery to keep securing votes.” People used to ask Minister Petovello for subsidies, he said. Now they ask for work.
Childhood and faith
Cala asked what Milei would tell the child who went through deep adversity, violence and abuse. “I wish that at that time I had the training in Judaism that I have now,” the president answered. He said that exposure to such violence left him used to living under extreme pressure, and that he later put that experience to work for Argentines “to avoid the biggest crisis in history.”
The release describes Milei as raised Catholic but publicly bound to Judaism. He told Cala about a coming book, Morality as State Policy, and said his outlook rests on King Solomon, Roman law and a rejection of moral relativism. Of his critics he said: “If they criticized Moses, they can say anything they want to me.”
Cuba and the rest
On foreign policy, Milei called Secretary of State Marco Rubio “outstanding” and praised U.S. action on Venezuela, including the cut in PDVSA funding. “Cuba is going to end up falling on its own,” he said, adding that he has “no doubt that Cuba will soon be free.”
He also spoke about the 16-hour workdays he puts in, which he offsets with music and philosophy reading. He recalled singing on large stages with Chaqueño Palavecino and a summer musical project with the artist Fátima Flórez, his former partner, whom he called “a wonderful, dazzling, talented being.” Asked whether there is room in his life for a new relationship, he answered: “For the moment, I haven’t heard about that time.”
The full interview is on Cala’s YouTube channel, “Los políticos son el problema.”
Sources
- Milei opens up to Ismael Cala: Childhood traumas, the Torah, and the fall of Cuba
- Milei opens up to Ismael Cala: Childhood traumas, the Torah, and the fall of Cuba – World Lifestyler
- Milei opens up to Ismael Cala: Childhood traumas, the Torah, and the fall of Cuba
