hand out

He also favors state-owned companies and government hand-out programs and derides the accumulation of personal wealth.

A victory for Morena on June 2 could entrench populism for 12 years in Mexico, essentially reviving the old idea of a charismatic, nationalist, hand-out regime as the perennial party in power.

He would be an attractive candidate for any of the weak, disorganized opposition parties, which have been pushed into the background by López Obrador’s charisma and hand-out policies like youth scholarships, cash food allowances for the elderly and raises to the minimum wage.

The old ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party parlayed a similar mix of nationalism and hand-out programs into an uninterrupted 71-year hold on Mexico‘s presidency between 1929 and 2000, but only because it evolved a series of rules on internal competition that came to be known as “institutionality.”

“Full debt cancellation would be a massive hand-out to rich doctors and lawyers, would worsen our inflation crisis, and would cost almost as much as the entire 2017 tax cuts. Either the president is serious about reducing deficits and getting inflation under control, or he is not. The White House can’t have it both ways.”