The Counterplayer: How Argentina’s Javier Milei Exposes German Statism

American Thinker ^ | 11/22/25 | Thomas Kolbe

[SeekAndFind]

While Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government is catapulting Germany into a debt spiral, long-struggling Argentina has begun paying down its liabilities. President Javier Milei is holding up a mirror to Berlin’s debt-addicted political class -- and the reflection is one of unmistakable failure.

It took Argentina’s President Milei barely six months, right in the middle of the severe economic crisis he inherited from his socialist predecessors, to clean up a completely ruined public budget. That was in June of last year.

This week, the Finance Ministry in Buenos Aires reported something that, in Germany today, would probably be dismissed as fiscal mythology: In October, the Argentine state paid down 7 billion U.S. dollars in public debt, reducing total government liabilities by one percent in a single month.

It was the sixth consecutive month in which the ministry managed to shrink the debt mountain, which still stands at around 83 percent of GDP.

Pathetic Trickery

Eighty-three percent -- incidentally, that is the level toward which Germany’s debt ratio is heading at the end of next year.

And if one includes what any honest fiscal assessment must include -- the government’s creative accounting: “special funds,” off-budget operations, exemptions, and other financial shell games -- Germany’s new borrowing this year is 4.3 percent of GDP, rising to 5.6 percent next year.

This assumes nominal GDP even stays flat -- which is increasingly unrealistic.

If Germany still had a media landscape that was both intellectually competent and professionally honest, the Merz government would be in serious trouble. Milei’s market liberalization and his relentless cutting back of state activity would not be systematically buried but widely and controversially debated.

They would serve as empirical proof of ongoing failure of Berlin’s and Brussels’s centralism. The public might rediscover something elementary: Free markets are not a zero-sum game…

[SeekAndFind]

RE: It was the sixth consecutive month in which the ministry managed to shrink the debt mountain, which still stands at around 83 percent of GDP.

We should be ashamed, America’s debt to GDP is closer to 120%!!!

[ClearCase_guy]

If Germany still had a media landscape that was both intellectually competent and professionally honest, the Merz government would be in serious trouble.

Such a global phenomenon. I refuse to believe that Major Media is anything like a true business enterprise. It just has to have government money steering it in all the major countries.

[MinorityRepublican]

My plan—Army cut 50%, higher Social Security age, Medicare trims, moderate tax hikes, plus $200 B in tariffs—would cover about 37% of the 2026 deficit. Fully balancing the budget would still require deep discretionary cuts, welfare reform, subsidy removals, and new revenue measures. Technically possible, but politically and socially very challenging.

The deficit in 2024 was $1.8 trillion.

[srmanuel]

The key to balancing the budget is to cut as much as politically possible, in all the areas you mentioned, in addition to increasing the growth of the GDP, instead of 1-2% we have been getting in the last few years to 4-5% and it would take longer than 1 POTUS and maintaining power in the Congress and Senate.

Any meaningful reduction in Federal Debt requires politicians who are committed to doing the right thing and knowing their political career could end when tough votes are required, something that is probably not going to happen.

[MinorityRepublican]

increasing the growth of the GDP, instead of 1-2% we have been getting in the last few years to 4-5% and it would take longer than 1 POTUS and maintaining power in the Congress and Senate.

I believe that we have monopolies in certain sectors of the economy and President Trump needs to enforce antitrust action towards those corporations.

Failing to do that, it's likely we will continue to have anemic economic growth of 1-2%.

[ridesthemiles]

ARGENTINA & GERMANY TOGETHER===BACK ALL THE WAY TO HITLER FLEEING TO THERE IN WW II.

[House Atreides]

“ My plan—Army cut 50%, higher Social Security age, Medicare trims, moderate tax hikes, plus $200 B in tariffs—would cover about 37% of the 2026 deficit. Fully balancing the budget would still require deep discretionary cuts, welfare reform, subsidy removals, and new revenue measures. Technically possible, but politically and socially very challenging.

The deficit in 2024 was $1.8 trillion.”
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The national DEBT is going to continue to grow for a number of years. The “trick” is to have a combination of spending restraint along with revenue enhancement so that we get a yearly DECREASE IN THE PERCENTAGE THAT NATIONAL DEBT IS COMPARED TO GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT. If those steps are taken eventually we’ll reach the point where the ABSOLUTE VALUE OF OUR NATIONAL DEBT BEGINS TO DECLINE.

[MinorityRepublican]

Trump is right to do nothing about the national debt because there is ZERO political will to do something about it.

Only when there is a DEFAULT, then we will do something about it.