America First — For Whom? | A Citizen's Series by Tom McGorty

A Five-Part Citizen's Series

America First
— For Whom?

An ordinary citizen's examination of who Washington actually serves

Five articles. Documented facts. Hard questions. Written by a retired American who got fed up watching dangerous ideas go unchallenged.

By Tom McGorty — April 2026

I'm not a journalist. I'm not a policy expert. I'm a retired American who travels this country full-time and pays attention. Over the past several weeks I've been researching and writing about what I see happening in Washington — the decisions being made, the numbers behind them, and who is actually paying the price.

These five articles cover NATO, the military budget, federal daycare hypocrisy, what's happening to American seniors, and the bigger pattern that ties all of it together. Every fact is sourced. Every quote is documented. The conclusions are mine. Make up your own mind — that's all I'm asking.

The Series

Article

● Published

We're Getting Played

Why the United States cannot walk away from NATO — the jobs, the money, the enemies waiting for us to blink, and the Iran war argument that doesn't hold up.

Read Article 1 →

Article

● Published

$1.5 Trillion For What, Exactly?

The largest military budget in American history. A Pentagon that has failed eight consecutive audits. A war with no exit plan. And claims about air superiority that were proven wrong two days later.

Read Article 2 →

Article

★ NEW

The Government Can't Afford Daycare — Unless You Work For It

Congress has its own taxpayer-funded daycare center with a waiting list. Twenty federal agencies run childcare subsidies for government employees. The Pentagon spends $1.79 billion a year on military family childcare. The president says it's a state problem.

Read Article 3 →

Article

○ Coming Soon

What About Us?

Tens of millions of American seniors on fixed incomes watching every bill go up while being told Medicare and Social Security are someone else's problem now. The human cost of Washington's priorities.

Article

○ Coming Soon

This Is Not an Accident

The closing piece that ties it all together. Why these decisions follow a pattern. Who benefits. And what ordinary Americans can do about it.

About the Author

I'm Tom McGorty — a retired American traveling this country full-time with my partner Lora. I'm 79 years old, on Social Security and Medicare, and I've been paying attention to what's happening in Washington for a long time.

I used Claude AI as a research and writing partner on this series. Every idea, every editorial direction, every argument is mine. Claude helped me find the facts, organize my thinking, and say clearly what I've been feeling. I'm disclosing that because you deserve to know — and because it proves that ordinary Americans now have tools powerful enough to compete with the spin machines.

You can follow our travels at tolotravelers.com. This series lives here too because this is what I'm thinking about when we're not on the road.