Trump’s Reversal of a Federal Funding Freeze

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The White House rescinded its order to freeze federal grants on Wednesday.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times

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.

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