Four years ago, the youthful Obama campaign offered young Americans the promise of a hopeful future. But today, the Obama presidency has little to offer the country’s newest crop of first-time voters.

President Obama’s policies have not only made life undeniably harder for young Americans in the short term, but those policies will also unfairly burden their lives in the long term.

Young Americans deserve better. They need an economy that offers opportunities, not roadblocks. Over the last three years, though, opportunity has been hard to find.

Employment for 18-to-24 year-olds is at the lowest level since the Great Depression. Only 54.3 percent are employed, compared to 62.4 percent four years ago. And 13.3 percent of 20-to-24 year-olds who are actively looking for work cannot find a job — five percentage points higher than the overall unemployment rate.

The president’s record of mandates and regulations has placed excessive burdens on small and large businesses alike, increasing their operating costs. That, in turn, makes it more difficult for them to hire new employees—especially those new to the job market.

Meanwhile, the cost of a college education is at an all-time high. Average tuition at a four-year in-state college has increased 25 percent since President Obama took office from $6,591 to $8,244, according to the College Board.

Lately, President Obama has been touring college campuses to promote his plan to tackle student loan debt. But he fails to tell students how little his refinancing plan will actually help them: It will save the average student less than $10 a month at a time when student debt is at an all time high.

Student debt is not the only debt young Americans have to worry about. Obama’s reckless spending over the last three years has accelerated the growth of the national debt. By the end of this year, the country’s debt will stand at $16.35 trillion. By the end of 2022, it will soar to $25.9 trillion if his budget is enacted.

Three years ago, President Obama promised to cut the budget deficit in half by the end of his term, but with his recently released budget, he officially broke that promise. The president continues to finance his record spending with borrowed money, and the resulting debt is a threat to our economy and undermines our nation’s credit, while placing an unfair burden on future generations.

Moreover, even though young Americans will contribute sizable chunks of their paychecks to Medicare and Social Security, they may not enjoy the benefits of these entitlement programs. Because of Democrats’ unwillingness to reform Medicare, its trust fund will be exhausted in 2022. The Social Security trust fund, if the program goes unreformed, will be exhausted in 2036.

Current spending levels are unsustainable, and government programs will not survive if major reforms are not made. Even so, President Obama and his congressional allies continue to defend the status quo, refusing to get serious about deficit reduction or entitlement reform. This may help them win political victories in the short term, but it means young Americans will lose in the long run.

In the coming weeks, staff from the Obama campaign will hold “summits” on college campuses in various battleground states, hoping to recruit students to support their campaign under the slogan “Greater Together.” That could be a hard sell. The Obama campaign talks a good game, but the Obama administration has not delivered. They have not delivered the jobs they promised, the college affordability they promised, or the deficit reduction they promised.

Today’s college-age voters will be less eager to buy into “hope and change” than their brothers and sisters were. That’s because they know something their older siblings didn’t. They know what an Obama presidency looks like.

They’ve seen his record, so they know they aren’t really “greater together” after all.

Carlos Gutierrez served as the 35th U.S. secretary of commerce from 2005 to 2009. He is also a former chairman of the board and CEO of the Kellogg Company.