How Macri Blew It

Alvaro Vargas Llosa writes, for RealClearWorld, about the failure of President Mauricio Macri to turn around the mess in Argentina. He argues Macri took half-measures when a real shakeup was what was indicated.

When Macri took over in December 2015, people were much relieved. Here was a guy apparently willing to dismantle Fernández de Kirchner’s legacy and six decades of Peronismo, Argentina’s cultural and political disease. However, Macri feared that if he applied shock therapy and opted for a deep reform of the state, the Kirchner-aligned opposition would destroy his presidency.

He took some much-needed measures, coming to an arrangement with the foreign bondholders Fernández de Kirchner had warred with for years, reducing agricultural export taxes, lifting currency controls, and raising tariffs on government-subsidized services. But he left the essential problems intact by barely making a dent in public spending, the tax burden, and the dependency of half the country on the government purse.

Macri is certainly not the first or only politician to stub his toe on the addictive nature of the welfare state. Plus Argentina has a really severe addiction to government handouts, thanks to Evita and subsequent “pushers.”