Sturzenegger says Congress would create “five million poor children,” but he favors a law

Federico Sturzenegger , Minister of Deregulation and State Transformation, stated that the package of laws approved by the Senate last week is "absolutely irresponsible," "childish," and would "create five million children in poverty in Argentina." However, he acknowledged his support for the law on the distribution of National Treasury Contributions (ATN) to the provinces and the fuel tax. "It would be the biggest political mistake of Mayans's career," he declared.

"Argentina is starting from a fiscal surplus that it has maintained for more than a year and a half. The economy is growing at 8% year-on-year, and the fiscal surplus is the cornerstone. That's why what happened this week in the Senate is so relevant. It doesn't ridicule the vice president (Victoria Villarruel) for her comments , but rather the Senate. Last year, when there was a similar attempt on the pension issue, I said that Congress had been childish. Now it remains childish ," Sturzenegger noted in an interview with La Cornisa , on LN+.

" It's like when a child asks to be bought a toy : they don't consider the cost, the adult is the one who considers the cost," he compared. He then referred to the pension increase, pension moratorium, emergency disability benefits, and funds for provinces as "a package divided into five initiatives worth 2.7 points of GDP spending; this time, Congress tried to say 'I'm going to raise some money to do this,' but do you know how much revenue they're proposing? 0.01%. They would have to make 260 times more fiscal effort to meet the spending they're proposing. It's absolutely irresponsible ," he said.

The government's plan to judicialize the Senate is already underway and has weaknesses.

"It's not that they want to destroy the Government , they want to hit all Argentinians. This law is a return to the economy of the last year of (Sergio) Massa , which left us with 70% of poor children, 11 million more poor. This package would reverse the drop in poverty achieved by Javier Milei and would create four or five million poor children in Argentina ," said the official and added: "It is understandable why Peronism does it: because they want to create problems, because they think that if Argentina does badly they will come back ."

Sturzenegger does not support the veto of the revenue sharing law.

As Javier Milei and Economy Minister Luis Caputo had anticipated, Sturzenegger also expressed his support for the ruling party's vetoes of legislative measures. However, he made an exception and mentioned the automatic redistribution of ATN bill, as its enactment "would change everything" and could even represent José Mayans's "biggest political mistake."

“One of the bills approved by the Senate was to distribute National Treasury contributions differently, something the governors themselves requested . The revenue sharing law was drafted by Alfonsín and Cafiero . Alfonsín believed that the central provinces should transfer resources to the peripheral provinces, which should receive more. Buenos Aires was the hardest hit in this regard, and Cafiero agreed,” the minister commented.

“That law included an article stating that a percentage of resources would be allocated by the government based on emergencies, like Bahía Blanca. Now they want to distribute that as well. So, why do I say that if the president consulted me, I wouldn't veto it? Because this would resolve the discussion about whether Congress could change the revenue-sharing law or not ,” he explained. “This changes everything. In fact, if the president consulted me, I would tell him, 'Don't veto this one,' ” he opined.

The ruling party is confident, and Milei predicts: "In October, the ballot boxes will speak."

"Since the 1994 Constitution, there has been much debate about whether or not Congress can change the revenue sharing law. Generally speaking, it's said that if the revenue sharing law is changed , each province would need to ratify it . So, those previously protected percentages , such as those in Formosa and Mayans, for example, will be discussed."

If this is approved, the Senate would validate that the revenue sharing law can be changed with a simple act of Congress . The debate over federalism would then begin. This changes everything. I believe that for (José) Mayans, this is the biggest political mistake of his career , since we would no longer be dependent on the Formosa Legislature," Sturzenegger exemplified, citing the case of the Peronist senator.

The unemployment question that threw Sturzenegger off balance and left him without an answer

In the same interview, Federico Sturzenegger was at times left speechless when questioned about the 50,000 public employee reductions and the employment situation in general . He defended the Javier Milei administration's decision to lay off tens of thousands of state workers, asserting that the question about the "cruelty" of these measures was "very poorly phrased."

The minister maintained that the real question should be "what happened to the jobs of the 50,000 "ñoquis " who left the state?" and also "the thousands of jobs that were created " thanks to the tax savings supposedly generated by these layoffs. "We returned millions of dollars to the Argentine people, who today we don't have to collect from them to pay those 50,000 employees," he explained.

However, Luis Majul interrupted him and questioned: "And where are they? If there is more unemployment today... were those jobs created?" This forced Sturzenegger to reaffirm his argument: "Of course they were," although without specifying where those new jobs would be. "Today Argentina has more employees than a year ago," Sturzenegger insisted, adding that " there were 13.3 million in the first quarter , there were 13.1 million a year ago." His statements are not supported by official data , which is around 12.8 million.

ML