Dear Editor:

In the past several weeks we have been presented with two very different opinions of what the future of this nation can and should be.Representative Ryan's version is one of hard times, sacrifice and dismay.Under his budget and prediction of our future the safety net for the average American is dismantled, medicare as we know it.. gone.., programs such as Head Start, WIC, LIHEAP etc. reduced to nothing. College is for the elite with the disappearance of the Pell Grant and other affordable college assistance programs for the middle class. Not to mention the other ideological visions they have for the population, no EPA, or health programs for women, workers stripped of their rights to a fair and healthy work environment to name just a few.A government that doesn't care enough about its citizens to afford any kind of assistance except to the wealthy in the form of tax cuts under the delusion that they will create jobs with the newly available monies. Ryan, stating that cutting the deficit is the major reason for all the sacrifice, to be endured by the working middle class, we still can afford to ADD to the deficit with the tax cuts for the upper class.The Republicans think we have a spending problem so their solution is to just cut every program out of the budget that our taxes pay for and give the monies to the wealthy in the form of tax cuts. Downsize the government so drastically that it is invisible regardless of how it will hurt the most vulnerable while keeping the status quo quite comfortable.The Republican vision is one of a nation that can't help its people and doesn't want to help its people.President Obama's vision is quite different. While it proposes cuts and sacrifice, it doesn't dismantle the system. It keeps programs in place needed especially during these hard times. The President believes however, that not only do we have a spending problem, we also have a revenue problem. The upper income bracket have not seen nor enjoyed such low taxes in decades. It seems that every move the democrats attempt, to right this wrong, the Republicans hold the entire country hostage in some form or another to block the correction that needs, no must, be enacted. Their "entitlement" to our tax dollars must end.I see long unemployment lines, long food lines.( I can't seem to get the vision from my memory of the thousands of people lined up in the streets during the depression to get some soup and bread.) I see seniors suffering from illness with no health care available at an affordable cost, despair among the young and old, feeling abandoned by their government. An uneducated poor population with no reason to hope for a better future.President Obama's vision is one of progress and prosperity. It is one of sacrifice engaged by all of the people. It is one of a country moving forward not backward, making progress while resolving our problems. Standing together, helping one another.A nation of HOPE.I think I'll stand with President Obama.SincerelyJanet AndersonNew Ringgold, Pa.