Tom McGinley, Author at TheAmericanCitizen.org

One Big Beautiful Bill – ensuring the “rich” continue to pay their fair share

June 25, 2025June 21, 2025 by Tom McGinley

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), the reconciliation bill recently passed by the House of Representatives and now being discussed and reworked in the U.S. Senate, has three main components: (1) It contains funding for the strongest border security in U.S. history including the entire wall at the southern border; (2) it fully extends the enormously successful 2017 tax rate cuts and (3) it provides the most significant welfare reform in 30 years.

Reconciliation versus Rescission

Elon Musk has recently expressed his disdain for OBBBA as he believes it has ignored the approximately $175 billion in federal spending that DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) had earmarked for elimination. But 95% of DOGE recommendations cannot be included in a so-called “reconciliation” bill.

The reconciliation process is a tool that small majorities in Congress often use to pass very narrowly defined legislation. To qualify for this process, a bill can only cut mandatory (not discretionary) federal spending, enact revenue changes (like tax rates) and/or alter the federal debt limit.

The “elephant in the room” or the Capitol in this case is the looming expiration (December 31, 2025) of the tax rate cuts of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017. Keeping these lower rates in effect and avoiding the potential economic calamity if they terminate is, and should be, Congress’s number one priority.

A Tribute to Fathers

June 14, 2025June 14, 2025 by Tom McGinley

(This tribute was originally posted in June 2021 and will be republished every Father’s Day as long as I’m alive.)

The root cause for virtually every cultural problem in the United States is the number of children growing up without fathers in their homes.

This is not the case within my own family. I am fortunate to have four sons (two sons, Mike and Matt and two sons-in-law, Dustin and Patrick) who are loving and dedicated fathers to their children. My grandchildren are all very young, very blessed and just assume that having dad at home is the way it is with kids everywhere. We know it is not.

This Sunday is the nation’s 115th celebration of the value of fathers. My effort here is to personalize this day by publicly thanking these men who are raising my grandchildren to let them know how valuable they and fathers like them are in the lives of their kids, their wives and society at large.

Prepare Yourself for the America of Kamala Harris … just in case

January 27, 2025November 3, 2024 by Tom McGinley

(Reddit.com) Kamala Harris with Sister Roma and Sister Hone Mahogany of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (mocking Catholics for over 40 years.)

For those voters on the fence or long-time Democrats, this will likely be the America of Kamala Harris …

Many of you are not thrilled about either of the two candidates for President but are still likely to vote for Kamala Harris given you consider yourself to be a loyal Democrat. Before you do please consider this partial list of information contained here before you make that fateful decision.

Here are a number of key issues to examine in determining your level of agreement with the Democrat candidate:

Abortion –

The political ‘buzz-phase’ this season is that Harris would protect a woman’s right to “reproductive freedom” meaning abortion. Of course, abortion is precisely the opposite of reproduction. Harris is by far, the most radical pro-abortion candidate in American history. She has gone out of her way to not vocalize any restrictions, including 3rd trimester abortions when asked on numerous occasions.
Her running mate, Tim Walz, eagerly pushed Minnesota’s “Protect Reproductive Options Act” that has no restrictions (other than the health of the “mother”) on any abortions whatsoever including 3rd trimester abortions.
As California Attorney General, Harris was a strong supporter of undermining crisis pregnancy centers in her state until the Supreme Court stopped her.
Harris voted against the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act” that would have required treatment to an infant that survived an abortion attempt. She chose to leave the baby lie untreated until it died.
Harris supports repeal of the Hyde Amendment that restricts tax dollars from being used to pay for abortions.
(Donald Trump says he will seek no national law restricting abortion but will leave the matter in the hands of individual states much to the opposition of many in his own party, including his former Vice-President.)

210th Anniversary of The Star Spangled Banner

January 27, 2025September 12, 2024 by Tom McGinley

This essay was originally published by the American Thinker on September 14, 2014, commemorating the 200th anniversary of Francis Scott Key’s writing of the Star Spangled Banner.

This Saturday marks the 210th anniversary of that fateful early morning when Key, along with the British Navy, looked toward Fort McHenry in foggy, smokey Baltimore Harbor to see the result of the previous night’s enormous bombardment — and was inspired to write America’s most famous poem. I thought it appropriate to republish it.

* * *

Two hundred years, on September 14th, it was the unlikely convergence of a physician and a lawyer that produced the most recited poem in American history. Its inspiration occurred just a few miles from Fort McHenry, located in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, the site of one of our nation’s most important military conflicts.

Golf’s Real Major Battle

January 27, 2025July 14, 2022 by Tom McGinley

Given that many golf tour professionals make millions each year, it’s hard to grasp that they could be underpaid. But relative to the extraordinary growth of compensation contracts in other pro sports, PGA golfers have for the most part been left behind.

Last (full) year, Jon Rahm was the leading money earner on the PGA Tour (not including the FedEx Cup) with $7.7 million in winnings. He was top dog among the best golfers on the planet. As much as this amount is, it paled in comparison to what professional athletes make in other sports.

According to Spotrac, there were 150 National Basketball Association players, 170 Major League Baseball players and 254 National Football League athletes who made more than Rahm.

A Tribute to Fathers

January 25, 2025June 14, 2022 by Tom McGinley

(This tribute was originally posted in June 2021 and will be republished every Father’s Day as long as I’m alive.)

The root cause for virtually every cultural problem in the United States is the number of children growing up without fathers in their homes.

This Sunday is the nation’s 113th celebration of the value of fathers. My effort here is to personalize this day by publicly thanking these men who are raising my grandchildren to let them know how valuable they and fathers like them are in the lives of their kids, their wives and society at large.

The Execution of Ashli Babbitt

January 25, 2025July 14, 2021 by Tom McGinley

On January 6, 2021 an out-of-control group of (mostly, but not all) supporters of President Trump “stormed the Capitol” building in Washington, D.C. And though Democrats and the media falsely claimed that a Capitol police officer was mercilessly bludgeoned to death, only one person died that day on the Capitol grounds as a result of a homicide — 14-year Air Force veteran, Ashli Babbitt. There has been virtually no outrage over the shooting death of this 5’2″ 110 pound, unarmed woman by a U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) lieutenant.

For the last six months, the name of the USCP officer who shot Babbitt has been unknown except to Congressional leadership, law enforcement and some in the media. New information has surfaced within the last few weeks regarding the (public) identity of her killer which still remains formally withheld by the USCP.

Paul Sperry of Real Clear Investigations has recently publicized the name of the officer who fired the fatal shot. This article will say who he likely, not confirmed, is but mostly focus on what transpired at the scene in the seconds leading up to her unjust death along with inconsistencies in the shooter’s story.

Ashli Babbitt was the victim of a personally fatal decision to raid the Capitol, extremely poor judgement on the part of the shooter, poor communication within the USCP and very unlucky timing.

Some of the many questions that need answers: Was the lethal action legally justified or was it pure negligence? Did the officer who shot Babbitt follow training protocols or did he act improperly and impulsively?

One fact will be made very clear. Though some USCP officers were clearly wired for inter-organization communication, an astonishing lack of coordination between the shooter and other officers within just a few feet of Babbitt contributed enormously to her death.

And finally, one major question cannot be ignored. Given our highly politicized and now “racialized” culture that permeates every aspect of society since the murder of George Floyd, was there a racial component to prosecutors’ decision not to criminally charge the officer?

A Tribute to Fathers

January 25, 2025June 17, 2021 by Tom McGinley

The root cause for virtually every cultural problem in the United States is the number of children growing up without fathers in their homes.

This Sunday is the nation’s 112th celebration of the value of fathers. My effort here is to personalize this day by publicly thanking these men who are raising my grandchildren to let them know how valuable they and fathers like them are in the lives of their kids, their wives and society at large.