Since taking office a year ago amid devastating hyperinflation, he’s undertaken a campaign of economic shock therapy, slashing government spending by around 30 percent. In doing so, as Jon Lee Anderson wrote in a recent New Yorker profile, he’s changed “the compact between the Argentinian state and its citizens — cutting cost-of-living increases to pensioners, funding for education, and supplies for soup kitchens in poor neighborhoods.” In some ways, Milei is succeeding; inflation has plummeted. But the poverty rate rose by around 11 points during his first six months in office, to almost 53 percent, and the country has fallen into a recession.
In the American right’s admiration for Milei, you can see the rebirth of old-fashioned small-government conservatism in feral tech-bro form. Campaigning for Trump in October, Musk argued that Americans need to accept “temporary hardship” to reduce spending, and Ramaswamy recently called for “Milei-style cuts on steroids.” It’s far from clear how much policy influence Musk and Ramaswamy will actually have; the Department of Government Efficiency is just an advisory board, not a real department. But while Paul Ryan may be banished from Trump’s Republican Party, some of the most unattractive elements of his politics have come roaring back.
Mike Lee, a Republican senator from Utah, has long dreamed of pulling up Social Security “by the roots.” In social media posts last week, he compared it to a “Ponzi scheme” and called for “real reform.” “Interesting thread,” wrote Musk, boosting it. On Fox Business Network, Representative Rich McCormick, a Republican from Georgia, said legislators need to have the “stomach” to make “hard decisions” about entitlements, while his fellow congressional Republican, Mark Alford, called for raising the Social Security retirement age.
At least in the immediate term, both Social Security and Medicare are probably safe, given the minuscule size of the House Republican majority. Plenty of other programs could, however, be on the chopping block.
A Republican Congress may cut federal matching funds that helped states expand access to Medicaid, which covers low-income people and people with disabilities. Republicans are talking about imposing national Medicaid work requirements and checking recipient eligibility more than once a year, potentially burdening people with more paperwork than they can keep up with. The G.O.P. is also looking at ways to cut food stamps and to make it harder to qualify for them. Affordable housing programs could be gutted, and Trump will probably roll back what he can of Biden’s student debt relief programs. New hardships, for many, may well be on the way. It remains to be seen how temporary they will be.