To the Editor:
Re “Pope Leo Should Avoid U.S. Affairs, Vance Says” (news article, April 15):
Vice President JD Vance, supporting President Trump’s rant against Pope Leo XIV, said “that in some cases it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality.”
While Mr. Vance was arguing that the pope should not involve himself in politics, in reality this statement reflects the immediate need for a moral voice in our politics. We are engaged in an immoral war directed by an immoral president.
When morality is considered separately from politics, our political leaders engage in unwanted immoral acts. Separating morality from politics is our core problem.
Politics should guide us in creating moral societies that support all humanity. Matters of war and peace cannot be separated from matters of morality. Pope Leo’s voice is direly needed.
Ellen Olshansky Pittsburgh
To the Editor:
Vice President JD Vance’s statement that the Vatican should “stick to matters of morality” shows his frightening lack of comprehension about the meaning of morality.
Morality has to do with the right or wrong of our behavior, including how we relate to others: our family members, neighbors, fellow humans and other countries. The essence of sticking to morality is opining on matters of governance.
Laurie H. Weinberg Wilbraham, Mass. The writer is a psychologist.
To the Editor:
Re “Vance Says the Pope Should Be More Careful When Talking About Theology” (news article, nytimes.com, April 14):
We indeed live in interesting times when the vice president of the United States presumes to lecture the pope on Catholic theology.
Don L. Doernberg Penn Valley, Calif.
Mr. Trump, Try Kindness
To the Editor:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who led us through the Great Depression and World War II and was elected president for an unprecedented four terms, was arguably our most consequential president. At least until now.
F.D.R. uttered the following words that our current president, Donald Trump, should internalize: “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel in order to be tough.” Neither does the president of the United States.
Mr. President, if you just tried sometimes to be kinder, you might find that not only do you like it and find it emotionally rewarding, but also that it’s actually far more effective in achieving your goals than your current modus operandi.
Sir, you have everything to gain by being kinder and nothing to lose.
Ken Derow Swarthmore, Pa.
The Tax Solution That Wasn’t
To the Editor:
Re “Just What We Needed, a More Annoying Tax Season,” by Binyamin Appelbaum (Opinion, April 5):
Mr. Appelbaum is right that the tax code is absurdly complicated. But the I.R.S.’s Direct File program wasn’t a meaningful solution.
The much-hyped experiment in government-run tax preparation proved that bad ideas can be both expensive and unpopular. The I.R.S. estimated that 32 million taxpayers were eligible to use Direct File during the 2025 filing season. Only 751,000 logged into the system. Fewer than 300,000 completed a return — less than half of 1 percent of individual income tax returns. Barely a rounding error.
It was also an expensive rounding error. Estimates put the processing cost — paid by the government using taxpayer money — at roughly $140 per filed return. That’s more per return than most taxpayers spend on the private-sector alternatives it was supposed to replace.
More important, Direct File posed a deep conflict of interest. It asked taxpayers to trust the I.R.S. to be their tax preparer, collector and enforcer. Taxpayers minimize their legal tax liability; the I.R.S. maximizes revenue collection, which it does through aggressive enforcement. In 2024, the I.R.S. lost 57 percent of the dollars it disputed in cases it brought against taxpayers. It is wrong more often than it’s right.
Software cannot solve a problem Congress created through dozens of deductions, credits, phase-outs and special eligibility rules. A government-run portal cannot be a substitute for simplifying the tax code.
Adam N. Michel Washington The writer is the director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute.
The post Vance, the Pope and ‘Matters of Morality’ appeared first on New York Times.
