Please join us for a Sarasota Reception, featuring presentations by Cato’s Clark Neily and Ian Vásquez.

Clark Neily will kick off the program by discussing the abuse of power at the federal level. Properly understood, the U.S. Constitution establishes a national government of enumerated and therefore limited powers. Abetted by an excessively deferential judiciary, however, federal officials today routinely enforce policies that have no plausible basis in the Constitution and that represent wasteful often breathtaking usurpations of power. Between the originalist-oriented judicial appointments of Donald Trump’s first administration and at least some of his more recent rhetoric, the time appears ripe for a renewed effort to target some of the U.S. government’s more glaring excesses.

We will also hear from Ian Vásquez, who will discuss Argentine President Milei’s far-reaching reforms, including dramatic spending cuts and extensive deregulation. Argentina offers the US both a warning and an example. While it used to be one of the freest and richest countries in the world, its large and intrusive government has since impoverished the country and produced recurring economic crises. Last year, President Milei came to power and promised nothing less than a paradigm shift: to return Argentina to the prosperity and freedom that the country once enjoyed. Vásquez will discuss Milei’s accomplishments, the remaining agenda, and his chances of success. At a time when so many countries are moving in an illiberal direction, Milei has so far provided an example for the US and the world of a better way forward.