Posted on 08/10/2026 6:44:43 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Argentina’s President Javier Milei continues to govern in ways that conservatives in America can only dream of. Now he’s come up with a new proposal that the U.S. would do well to copy.
When Milei came into office, he promised to slash government spending, balance the budget, embrace free trade, deregulate the economy, and get hyperinflation under control. (“Experts” such as Paul Krugman said it would end in disaster.)
Milei’s lived up to his promises. Month-over-month inflation was running at 25% when he took office; it’s below 2% now. Argentina ran a budget surplus in 2024, the first time since 2008. The poverty rate has plunged, and in July, the country got its third credit upgrade in three months.
Even the Washington Post marveled that “The message from the ratings agencies is that President Javier Milei’s market-oriented reforms are working.”
Now he’s put forth a plan designed to keep Argentina’s government in check for the long term.
“He’s calling it the grillete fiscal or the ‘fiscal shackle,’ and it’s part of a larger reform of the Central Bank’s charter that he’s sending to the country’s Congress, possibly for a mid-to-late-August vote,” writes Sarah Anderson at PJ Media, which is where we first learned of this proposal.
Under this plan, if the government runs a deficit for several months in a row, the Congress gets a warning, then the “shackle” kicks in, suspending non-essential government functions and basically freezing everything else in place. No new spending, no new contracts, no new hires, until lawmakers get the budget back in balance.
But the kicker is that, while the government is shackled, top politicians — ministers, undersecretaries, senators, etc., even the president — won’t get paid.
“For the first time in our history, if politics doesn’t do its homework, politics will pay the cost — not the people,” Milei said when he introduced the proposal.
Milei isn’t the first person to think up an idea like this. Since 2013, Montana Sen. Steve Daines has been introducing a bill that “withholds members of Congress’s salaries in each chamber if the Office of Management and Budget does not certify that the chamber has adopted a balanced budget. The bill also requires that revenue increases be agreed upon by an affirmative three-fifths vote in each chamber.”
But his bill would require Congress only to pass a budget that would balance 10 years down the road.
In May, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution that would withhold members’ pay during a government shutdown. But that applies only to senators, and the senators can easily pass another resolution suspending it when the time comes.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that Argentinian legislators will vote for a plan that puts their livelihoods on the line, but given Milei’s success in delivering for this country, they’d be crazy not to.
If they do, President Donald Trump and U.S. lawmakers should take note.
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I like this idea!
It is a good idea. It is using human nature to put limits on government.
It is an extension of the checks and balances ideas in the US Constitution.
That would work. Would congress critters screw themselves?
I’ve always like the idea that if the gov’t runs a deficit any year of your term as a senator, congressmen, or president you are now ineligible for re-election.
INTERESTING...PUT THE PRESSURE WHERE IT NEEDS TO BE=== THE SPENDERS
Why wuld we do that? The system is designed so everyone but the politicians pays the price.
Its a wonderful idea, but who will impose this on Congress? There is no higher authority in terms of spending
We also have something like the already in the USA. its called the debt-ceiling
Congress and President just ignore it, use it for political posturing, then vote to expand it.
if they do this then the USA would no longer be the world’s entral banker.
I was hoping we were going to import beautiful women.
Maybe export some bad attitudes to balance it out.
I really like the part where the Congress critters and the President don’t get paid.
Danny, if you’re really in TN, then you need to get out more. I’m in Nashville visiting for a few days, and I see lots of beautiful women. Also some homely ones, but yeah, just go take a look. They’re out there already.
This addresses the root of the problem: Congress has no skin in the game. It cost them nothing to use our money to buy votes. The plan in Argentina places a cost on this type of behavior right where it belong: on the Spenders. This would never be passed by Congress, so there’s going to have to be a grassroots movement to make this law.
Therefore the Demublicans (or is it the Republocrats?) will have nothing to do with it ... and the President lacks the guts to push it. We can't even get election security through the current Senate ...
During these budget shutdown shenanigans there is no reason members of Congress should be paid. We should be making those running for Congress take this pledge.
Argentina’s President Javier Milei campaigned with a chain saw...and sure enough he took a chain saw to cut out waste and also cut out rent control and pegged the currency to the US Dollar.
Radical liberal judges will shut that down before ink is dry.
“I really like the part where the Congress critters and the President don’t get paid.”
Trump isn’t getting paid now. What do you do, take away his birthday? The median net worth of a U.S. member of Congress is estimated to be over $1 million—roughly nine times higher than the typical American household. Throw them into the briar patch.
And telling congress to stop what they are doing is telling to stop until we tell them to stop again. This little gig has been going on since right after the revolutionary war when the bills came in at around 1789 which established our first deficit. Maybe more tariffs with Britain and Germany would be appropriate as reparations for the revolutioan war.
And the debt has been totally paid off only one time in our history, in 1835. Don’t hold your breath.
wy69
Now he’s come up with a new proposal that the U.S. would do well to copy.
Indeed but it’ll never happen as long as the democrats and Rino’s in congress keep the grip.
If they're anything like our "representatives", that lil gubbermint check ain't their "livelihood".. d;^)
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