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George H.W. Bush told voters to read his lips when he pledged no new taxes. Javier Milei says he’s willing to sacrifice a limb to keep that same promise.
The libertarian economist grabbed the world’s attention en route to victory in Argentina’s presidential race with his extreme policy positions, like promising to curb inflation by abolishing the country’s central bank.
But he also borrowed a classic piece of the American conservative movement’s playbook by vowing not to increase taxes, albeit in slightly gorier terms than you usually hear in Washington.
“If I raise a tax, I’m going to cut off my own arm,” Milei said after signing the pledge in the summer of 2021. “So long live freedom, damn it!”
Milei made the promise to the Argentine Taxpayers Association, a sister group of Americans for Tax Reform, the organization led by Grover Norquist that turned the no-new-taxes pledge into a staple of Republican politics. Norquist told Semafor he planned on attending Milei’s Dec. 10 inauguration in Buenos Aires. While there, he’s hoping to help spread the low-tax, small government gospel in a nation more accustomed to expansive spending under successive Peronist administrations, and says he’ll try to meet with Milei — though he doesn’t have a sit-down scheduled yet.
“Argentina is such a central country in terms of its size, its history, its relationship with everybody else,” Norquist told Semafor. “Nobody can say, ‘Oh, I can’t run for limited government and win in my country.’ If you can win in Argentina on that message, you can win anywhere.”
It’s not the first time Norquist has acted as emissary for conservative ideas with foreign officials. Politico reported Norquist met with former British Prime Minister Liz Truss during her visit to Washington, D.C. a year ago and urged her to focus on lowering taxes. She spearheaded a brief push for tax cuts, which triggered a violent financial market reaction that led to her ouster.
Norquist said his group has received the tax pledge from every GOP presidential candidate left in the 2024 field with the notable exception of Donald Trump. “Trump gave us a written statement, but we’re looking to get the actual pledge,” Norquist said. Notably, Trump floated a 10% tariff on all goods entering the U.S. earlier this year, which Americans for Tax Reform would consider a tax hike.
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The 53-year old Milei — a self-proclaimed “anarcho-capitalist” who once destroyed a piñata of Argentina’s central bank on live TV — is seeking to revive Argentina’s a flailing economy, the third-largest in South America, by enacting an extreme austerity regimen. His proposals include slashing government spending by 15% of Argentina’s GDP, cutting taxes, entirely replacing the peso with the U.S. dollar, and eliminating 10 of 18 public ministries. Some experts argue it’s a recipe that could trigger strikes and social unrest in Argentina.
The country’s economic landscape is dire: Its inflation rate stands at 140%, and two out of five Argentine citizens live in poverty. However, observers say it’s unclear how much of Milei’s drastic economic platform will materialize, given his scarce political experience and lack of a governing majority in both chambers of Argentina’s Congress.
“He will struggle to build a party or a grassroots base that extends beyond his campaign,” Michael Paarlberg, a professor of Latin American political science at Virginia Commonwealth University, told Semafor. “Along with the lack of feasibility of his more unorthodox ideas, he will be hamstrung in trying to implement much of his agenda.”
He predicted Milei would “leave office with 30% approval like any other president.”
For the time being, Milei seems intent on locking arms with Trump. On Instagram, Milei shared fan art of him brandishing a chainsaw reflecting his enthusiasm to slash public spending next to Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil.
Trump congratulated Milei in a Truth Social post shortly after his victory and said: “You will turn your country around and truly Make Argentina Great Again!” Since then, Milei has announced he would make a “spiritual” trip to Israel and the U.S. before being sworn in.