It took two months for the executive to forfeit. Failing to reach an agreement with the opposition in Congress, where the budget is voted on each year, Javier Milei's ultraliberal government ultimately extended the 2023 budget for 2025, in a decree published on December 30, 2024. An extension of the budget from one year to the next has occurred in the past, but this is the first time that the law forming the basis of public finance has been renewed two years in a row.

In mid-September 2024, Milei presented his draft budget to Congress. "Zero deficit," and "regardless of the economic situation," he demanded, defending the austerity shock that was applied as soon as he came to power in December 2023. "We have become accustomed to thinking of the government as a nanny, which has to take care of everything from feeding to entertaining every citizen," he castigated.

"We have not reached a common position that will enable us to guarantee zero deficit," José Luis Espert, a deputy from the president's party and chairman of the budget committee, concluded on November 19, 2024. In particular, discussions stumbled over the revaluation of pensions (the first item of expenditure to bear the brunt of public cuts), universities and funds paid to the provinces (24, in this federal state).

A decline in spending

Was this a dead end for the executive? Not at all. In fact, with triple-digit inflation (166% year-on-year, in November 2024), using the 2023 budget makes it even easier for the government to deploy its anti-public-spending "chainsaw" – Milei's symbolic tool.

According to calculations by the media outlet Chequeado, based on inflation projections for 2025, the budget represents a 24.1% decline in spending. The Civil Association for Equality and Justice, for its part, pointed out that the public policies particularly losing out with this second extension were the fight to reduce violence against women, the prevention of teenage pregnancy, and the construction and improvement of nursery schools.

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