Neil Armstrong, a hero America can't replace.

Astronaut Neil Armstrong was selected to command Apollo 11 because he was a man of solutions.  An engineer AND a test pilot.  In the event of trouble Armstrong was capable of saving the ship.  We ache as we see another of his GREAT generation move on, because we have another ship that needs saving now.  Neil Armstrong wouldn’t cut the budget on space adventure, or dig into the sacred trust of Medicare, or suggest selling our kids down the river to pay for our wants.  He would and he did preach:  personal sacrifice and discipline.  As Kitchen Cabinet contributing columnist, Melanie Sturm writes, in the times we live in we have never needed heroes like Neil Armstrong….more..

Reflected...Glory.

In breaking the sad news, NBC’s Brian Williams asserted, “We have lost the last American hero,” as if surrendering America’s heroic destiny to our era’s chaos and controversy. Yet throughout our tumultuous history, Americans have proven, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” starting with George Washington, who summoned heroism in his beleaguered troops by crossing the icy Delaware River en route to American independence.

Though Thomas Jefferson warned, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground,” our founders established “a government of the people, by the people, for the people,” knowing it was a precondition to a dynamic, prosperous and free society. We fought the Civil War so this American ideal wouldn’t perish from the earth. Now, with our faith in the American Dream rattled, we face another great challenge

Thomas Jefferson

Today we suffer unprecedented levels of economic stagnation, long-term unemployment and government dependency. Despite a record $830 billion stimulus enacted in February 2009, this recovery (which technically began in June 2009) is the weakest of the 11 tracked since World War II. Stimulus advocates promising that the unemployment rate wouldn’t exceed 8 percent — though it has for 42 consecutive months — were also wrong in forecasting a 5.5 percent rate by now.

In 2001 America was attacked by foreign enemies...now we're attacked by incompetence.

Even since the start of the “recovery,” economic trends have deteriorated: The ranks of the long-term unemployed grew by 800,000, those no longer in the labor force increased 8 million, and food-stamp spending doubled to $85 billion. New York Times economics columnist Catherine Rampell reported that median household incomes declined more (4.8 percent) during the “recovery” — even among the continuously employed — than they fell (2.8 percent) during the preceding 18-month recession. Consequently, 85 percent of the much-discussed American middle class reports that it’s now harder to maintain their standard of living, according to Pew Research.

Humorist P.J. O’Rourke said, “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” Refusing to relinquish their intoxicating power to spend and

Government: The discipline of teenage boys?

borrow, political leaders have subverted the national interest by causing four consecutive trillion-dollar deficits. With government spending at stratospheric levels, we charge $41,222 to our children’s credit card every second. At $16 trillion, our national debt is up 50 percent since January 2009, exceeding the size of our economy. When added to future Medicare and Social Security claims, it totals $136 trillion — an incomprehensible, indefensible and morally reprehensible sum.