In a blatant act of retribution, Missouri House Republicans this week voted to completely defund the entire state’s public libraries, after librarians filed a lawsuit with the ACLU over a new law that they say violates their First Amendment rights.

Should the bill pass Missouri’s Republican-majority Senate and be signed into law by Missouri’s Trump-endorsed Republican governor, all 399 of the state’s public libraries would receive $0 in state funding, a cut of $4.5 million.

“Often when we tell the public about the things that are getting voted on in here, they think when we tell them what happened just today, that’s got to be partisan rhetoric and hyperbole,” lamented Missouri Democratic state Rep. Peter Merideth (video below), who is also an attorney. “It’s not. These are the things actually passing.”

“They actually took out all state aid from public libraries explicitly because librarians are suing over their First Amendment rights over a book ban,” he continued, rubbing his temples in exasperation.

“I feel like we’re starting to live in a dystopian future from like 1984 or Fahrenheit 411 or whatever – 451 – where we’re talking about book bans from the government, and then the government being mad at librarians as the threat to our kids? And defunding public libraries. That’s the real world here today in Republican-led Missouri.”

VICE News confirms the GOP gutted all library funding in the House bill.

The $0 budget “comes after Republican House Budget Chairman Cody Smith proposed a $4.5 million cut to public libraries’ state aid last week in the initial House Budget Committee hearing, where Smith cited a lawsuit filed against Missouri by the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri (ACLU-MO) as the reason for the cut.”

The Associated Press adds that Rep. Smith “has said the state shouldn’t subsidize the lawsuit by giving public libraries money.”

Since last summer Missouri librarians have been faced with charges of up to one year in prison or $2000 in fines “for giving students access to books the state has deemed sexually explicit,” VICE explains. “The Missouri law defined explicit sexual material as images ‘showing human masturbation, deviate sexual intercourse,’ ‘sexual intercourse, direct physical stimulation of genitals, sadomasochistic abuse,’ or showing human genitals. The lawsuit claims that school districts have been pulling books from their shelves.”

GOP Rep. Dirk Deaton says Republicans are doing it all for kids.

“It’s been said this is a book ban. This is not that,” Rep. Deaton said. “It is protecting innocent children.”

Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, whose stated goal is to drastically cut federal spending and is targeting critical and life-saving social safety net programs that protect low-income families, children, and the elderly, on Thursday attacked President Joe Biden by mocking his age.

McCarthy, who weeks ago admitted House Republicans would not meet an April 1 deadline to submit their budget, has repeatedly attacked President Biden’s budget, as have many House Republicans who during the Trump administration passed prohibitively expensive tax cuts for the wealthy that have blown up the debt.

In early March, President Biden unveiled his fiscal 2024 budget, which he said was designed to “give working people a fighting chance.”

“My budget reflects what we can do to lift the burden and hardworking Americans and there’s more than one way to do that,” Biden said, as Spectrum News reported, noting he touted “a number of the initiatives in the proposal — from lowering prescription drug prices to investing in paid family and medical leave — calling them crucial to reducing costs for the American people and bolstering the economy.”

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“All the things are going to help folks go to work, generate economic growth in our nation and still take care of their families,” the President also said. “The point is that when every time I talk about things, people talk about like ‘this is an overwhelming burden on the taxpayer.’ It’s going to save money for the taxpayers. It really does! Save money for the taxpayers and generate growth. That’s how the economy grows.”

McCarthy has been trying to play offense, attacking the President’s plan, not presenting even a rough draft of the Republican’s budget, and demanding Biden meet with him even though the President has said he will only when there is a full set of numbers on the table.

The Speaker’s goal in part is “requiring more people on welfare to work,” as a USA Today headline on Thursday states. Bloomberg News reports McCarthy wants to impose “tougher work requirements on anti-poverty benefits.”

“I put forward specific proposals for how to cut deficits by nearly $3 trillion over 10 years by having big corporations and the super wealthy pay their fair share, cutting special interest subsidies like tax breaks for the oil and gas industry – some of the most profitable companies in America, and expanding Medicare’s new ability to negotiate lower drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. My proposals enable us to lower costs for families and invest in our economic growth, all while reducing the deficit,” President Biden said Wednesday in a letter (below) to McCarthy.

“Unfortunately, the tax proposals from the House Republican Conference would exacerbate the debt problem I inherited by adding over $3 trillion in new tax spending skewed to the same constituencies who should be paying more, like multinational corporations and the richest taxpayers,” Biden added.

“That is one reason why seeing your full set of proposals would be useful before we meet, so we can understand the full, combined impact on the deficit, the economy, and American families.”

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“My hope is that House Republicans can present the American public with your budget plan before the Congress leaves for the Easter recess [next week], so that we can have an in-depth conversation when you return. As I have repeatedly said, that conversation must be separate from prompt action on the Congress’ basic obligation to pay the Nation’s bills and avoid economic catastrophe,” Biden added.

My letter in response to Speaker McCarthy. pic.twitter.com/veNZtqmEkK

— President Biden (@POTUS) March 28, 2023

The Speaker appears to be setting the stage to allow the United States to default on its debt, while pinning the blame on President Biden.

McCarthy is demanding massive cuts be attached to any efforts to raise the debt ceiling, while President Biden has repeatedly asked for a “clean” bill, one without any other measures attached.

If Congress does not pass legislation raising or eliminating the debt ceiling by June, the nation and the world would face “an unprecedented and potentially catastrophic default on U.S. debt,” as NPR noted.

Rather than appear willing to negotiate on the debt ceiling, on Thursday McCarthy at a GOP press conference attacked President Biden’s age.

President Biden “apparently doesn’t want to meet. I don’t understand why,” the Speaker said, as Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman reports.

“Mr. President, I’m ready at any time, at any moment. I’ll come tonight,” he added.

And then, clearly mocking President Biden’s age, McCarthy said: “I would bring lunch to the White House. I would make it soft food.”

HuffPost adds, “House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), 57, and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), 62, were among those laughing along with McCarthy.”

“When HuffPost asked Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), who was among those speaking at the press conference, what sort of soft food McCarthy might bring to Biden, she laughed uncomfortably. ‘Oh, you’ll have to ask Kevin about that,’ she said.”

Watch McCarthy’s remarks below or at this link.

“I don’t know what more I can do … I would bring the lunch to the White House. I would make it soft food if that’s what he wants.”

— House Speaker Kevin McCarthy blames President Biden for debt limit negotiations stalling pic.twitter.com/oczmCAwdZt

— The Recount (@therecount) March 30, 2023

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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A Texas federal judge has voided Obamacare’s requirements that insurance companies cover the full costs of life-saving HIV prevention and treatment drugs, claiming requiring Christian employers to do so violates their rights under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

In that same ruling on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, who has a lengthy history of deciding against LGBTQ people and in favor of the far Christian right, also voided requirements insurance companies, under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), cover other life-saving medications and procedures including cancer screenings, mental health services, and diabetes treatments, although for reasons unrelated to religion.

“In September,” Reuters reports, “O’Connor held that the US Preventive Services Task Force, which determines what qualifies as a covered preventive measure under the ACA, can’t validly do so because its members aren’t subject to Senate confirmation and their recommendations aren’t reviewed by constitutionally appointed government officials.”

Thursday’s decision is an extension of Judge O’Connor’s September ruling, in the same case, Braidwood Mgmt., Inc. v. Becerra.

Slate’s legal expert Mark Joseph Stern calls Judge O’Connor’s ruling “nothing short of catastrophic to the U.S. health care system.”

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“Millions of Americans, including many pregnant women, will have to forgo basic care if it is upheld,” he adds.

The case was brought by Dr. Steven Hotze, a far-right Republican activist and religious extremist who has attacked the LGBTQ community for decades. Last fall The New York Times identified Braidwood Management’s owner as “Dr. Steven F. Hotze, a well-known Republican donor and doctor from Houston, has previously challenged the Affordable Care Act on other grounds.”

The Times reports in that September ruling in this same case, Judge O’Connor wrote: “The PrEP mandate substantially burdens the religious exercise of Braidwood’s owners.” O’Connor, The Times added, wrote “that Dr. Hotze believes that covering PrEP drugs ‘facilitates and encourages homosexual behavior, intravenous drug use and sexual activity outside of marriage between one man and one woman.'”

HIV is not exclusive to people who engage in same-sex intimate relations, drug use, or sexual activity outside of marriage between one man and one woman.

In 2015, Dr. Hotze compared same-sex marriage to the Holocaust and gay people to murderers, defending his belief that Texas should ignore the impending Supreme Court ruling that found same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage.

Just two weeks ago Dr. Hotze was “kicked out of a state senate session,” The Daily Beast reported, “after he called transgender people ‘pedophiles.'”

“Major medical and patient groups,” Bloomberg Law reported on Thursday, “had argued that a nationwide order would jeopardize health care for millions of Americans, leading to preventable deaths and higher costs for treating diseases that could have been detected earlier by free screenings.”

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According to Forbes, Judge O’Connor’s ruling on Thursday also voids required coverage for other “preventive services,” including “screenings for such cancers as breast cancer, colorectal cancer, cervical cancer and lung cancer, diabetes screenings, various screenings and interventions for pregnant people, statin use to prevent cardiovascular disease, vision screening for children and more.”

And yet, Judge O’Connor’s decision tossed “other arguments that tried to invalidate the contraceptive mandate in the ACA, so coverage for contraception will remain unaffected by Thursday’s ruling.”

The Biden Administration is expected to appeal, and according to Forbes because insurance policies are generally in effect for a calendar year, it’s unlikely any possible changes would be implemented before January.

Meanwhile, Judge O’Connor in 2019 overturned protections written into ObamaCare for transgender people, ruling they violate the religious rights of healthcare providers who hold religious beliefs that oppose the existence of transgender people.

Three years earlier, in 2016, O’Connor – who at that point already had a record of opposing LGBT rights – handed down a 38-page order in a lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on behalf of 13 states, blocking the Obama administration from enforcing its guidance that said public schools should allow transgender students to use restroom and locker rooms based on their gender identity.

Image: Judge Reed O’Connor