In the 2008 presidential election, President Obama received overwhelming support from young voters.  The past four years has produced the following results and prospects for young Americans: 

• Among 16 to 24-year-olds, the unemployment rate is 15.5%.  After adjusting for the decline in the labor force participation rate (LFPR), i.e. individuals leaving the labor force, the unemployment rate rises to 20 percent.

• Student debt now totals nearly $1 trillion dollars, more than all of American credit card debt.  Tuition increases in public universities has been growing at 5.6% faster than inflation. 

• Four straight years of deficits in excess of $1 trillion deficits has pushed the debt to $16 trillion, larger than the entire U.S. economy.  President Obama’s budget would add another $11 trillion to the debt over the next decade.    It is America’s youth and future generations that will inherit this debt that will weigh down the economy, job growth, and wages in the near term and invite a debt crisis, an austerity program, and tax increases in the long term.

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