BUENOS AIRES, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Argentine President

Javier Milei on Monday vetoed a pension boost and a bill

strengthening protections for people with disabilities, which

lawmakers had passed in July, saying that they put fiscal

balance at risk.

The decision to veto the bills had already been

announced by Milei last month, although Congress - where the

libertarian president does not have a majority - can still

overturn the vetoes.

The vetoes come less than three months before

Argentina's mid-term elections, seen as a gauge of approval for

the Milei administration, which has managed to reduce

triple-digit annual inflation but whose austerity policies have

had a social impact.

After the publication of an executive order with the

vetoes, the Argentine presidency said in a statement that the

bills had been approved by Congress in an irresponsible manner,

without identifying funding sources.

"This president prefers to tell an uncomfortable truth

rather than repeat comfortable lies: there is no money," the

statement said.

(Report by Maximilian Heath; Writing by Benjamín Mejías

Valencia; Editing by Sharon Singleton, Gabriel Araujo and

Franklin Paul)