To the Editor:
Re “Administration Lifts Aid Freeze After an Uproar” (front page, Jan. 30):
The Trump administration’s reversal of its freeze on federal grants and loans is a welcome sign it might begin to understand the extent of harm its overreaching directives will cause and the financial mismanagement displayed.
We’d all like to see a more efficient, less wasteful government. Ending funding for food, health and education programs at home; withdrawing from international organizations that cooperate on health, climate, peace, justice and human rights; defunding international aid programs like PEPFAR (which provides H.I.V. medications) and UNRWA (which helps Palestinian refugees); and massive deportation will cause immense harm, only increasing need.
When I stopped working because of a Covid-related heart condition, we needed to cut our household expenses. We did not shut off electricity, gas and water, stop buying food, terminate our health insurance and cease helping others. Imagine the harmful consequences if we had. Rather, we reviewed our expenses, line by line, had difficult conversations and cut what we could. Along with increasing energy efficiency, the cuts we made smoothed our transition from a two-income household to one income.
Like a household, our government must meet its constituents’ needs and cooperate with others to meet global needs. If the administration is dedicated to cutting waste, it should start with auditing the Pentagon and slashing its $850 billion budget. Imagine how those dollars could be better spent on improving lives.
Poverty, hunger, illness, climate disasters and war are not red or blue, urban or rural. Senators John Thune and Chuck Schumer and Speaker Mike Johnson and Representative Hakeem Jeffries must lead these difficult conversations.
Nancy Bermon
Nyack, N.Y.
To the Editor:
The Trump administration’s sudden rescission on Wednesday of the federal spending freeze it had imposed just as suddenly only two days earlier once again highlighted an aspect of President Trump’s rule that has remained evident no matter what you think of the policies themselves: the simply breathtaking incompetence.
Countless times in his first term he would announce, sometimes just by tweet, a dramatic new policy, and then for days we would witness the chaos resulting from an utter lack of planning or consultation with the very people and agencies required to carry out the intended policy, leading to confusion, ineffectiveness and often either voluntary reversal or court-ordered nullification of the original announcement.
As many have noted, Mr. Trump runs his administration like a reality show, not a government, and he thinks that mere provocative performance can substitute for the actual work that the job requires.
Meanwhile, his spineless fellow Republicans wince in private while voicing unconvincing blustering support in public. His opponents console themselves that the sheer incompetence of the president and his closest advisers will at least somewhat lessen the long-term damage of his nonstop impulsive displays of narcissistic nihilism.
To the Editor:
I am a former NASA employee who recently resigned in protest over the agency’s compliance with new executive orders issued by President Trump — especially the return to work policy and the recent closure of its diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (D.E.I.A.) offices, implemented under the president’s executive orders.
These policies, and the NASA acting administrator Janet Petro’s memo repeating the Trump administration’s claim that D.E.I.A. programs are divisive, wasteful and “resulted in shameful discrimination,” disregard years of evidence-based work by dedicated public servants. Such decisions undermine not only the morale of employees but also the core values of equity, innovation and inclusion that should define federal service.
This is not merely administrative downsizing — it is a warning. As Primo Levi said, “More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.” Compliance with harmful directives erodes freedoms, threatens justice and portends a troubling future for our institutions.
To the Editor:
Re “Dementia Cases Will Surge in Coming Decades, a New Study Estimates” (news article, Jan. 14):
The staggering increase of dementia cases in the U.S. will not only greatly affect the health care system, but it will also further strain our nation’s already beleaguered caregiving infrastructure.
Family caregivers are the backbone of our nation’s dementia crisis, with 11 million Americans providing more than 18 billion hours of unpaid dementia care annually. This number will only increase as the number of people with dementia is expected to double by 2060.
At the same time, the U.S. lacks comprehensive support for this growing nation of caregivers, including paid family leave, respite care, and home and community-based services. To make matters worse, Congress is considering more than $2 trillion in cuts to the Medicaid program, the country’s primary source of funding for home- and community-based care. Cuts of this scale will severely limit the ability of states to support family caregivers, including the millions providing dementia care.
If our nation is going to adequately address its current and looming dementia crisis, Congress and the Trump administration must expand support for family caregivers, not slash it.
Jason Resendez
Washington
The writer is the president and C.E.O. of the National Alliance for Caregiving.
To the Editor:
Re “The Catholic Church Must Speak Out Against Mass Deportations,” by William K. Reilly (Opinion guest essay, Jan. 18):
Catholics and people of faith across all traditions are standing up and taking action to protect our immigrant neighbors at risk of deportation. Our communities are already mobilizing to stop mass deportations and protect the ability of immigrants to be safe in houses of worship, schools and hospitals.
The organization I lead, Faith in Action, through our federations in New York and New Jersey, recently joined with the Archdiocese of Newark in a call for prayer and action to support immigrant families at risk of mass deportation. We take Pope Francis’ call to walk alongside migrants and refugees to heart and have joined across faith traditions to support the families and communities vulnerable to the policies of the new administration.
Religious communities are on the front lines defending vulnerable families, from providing know-your-rights training to advocacy for just and humane laws. This groundswell of faithful action is a powerful reminder of what is possible when people of conscience come together to defend their neighbors.
Our faith compels us to love, not deport, our neighbors. Now is the time to turn our shared values into bold action.
(Bishop) Dwayne Roster
Rockville, Md.
