Over the next few weeks 3.5 million of you will graduate and try to find jobs. We're sorry to tell you that achieving success will be more difficult than it was for your parents or grandparents. Not because you're less intelligent, or lazier or less deserving of realizing the American dream. The primary reason why today's graduates face a daunting future: Government is making life more difficult for you.

The youth unemployment rate for those between ages 20 and 24 is 9.6%, compared with 4.5% for those 25 and over. But America's...