The White House announced last year to the American people that “the recession is over.” Hoover’s address in 1931 stated that the depression was over just as the worst of the Great Depression started to hit.

Now, nearly a year after the White House’s misleading statement, the Bush Administration has again misled us, this time into working more and earning less, as stated by the Economic Policy Institute.

The Associate Press also says that we are at the highest unemployment rate in nine years.

This May, unemployment rates rose to its highest monthly gains since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, leaving more than nine million Americans unemployed, according to AP. In fact, the pastthree months alone have left more than one million workers jobless. Democrats are starting to point out that Bush’s multi-trillion dollar tax cuts have started to show their misleading nature. If one cares to look, they will notice that every time one of Bush’s tax cuts is passed, the unemployment rate tends to climb. Many students will also concur that it has become more difficult to find a job in the past few months.

To make things worse for those of us about to join the labor pool, the EPI states that the Labor Department is employing a new set of regulations that will make eight million white -collar workers ineligible for overtime pay. This is the first change to these regulations, set by the Fair Labor Standards Act, since 1938. The new regulations would remove anyone who makes more then $425 per week from being assured overtime benefits, meaning that someone making an annual salary of $23,000 would not receive their much needed overtime pay.

Furthermore, recent studies indicate that Americans are working more than the rest of the industrial world — Americans take an average of 10.5 vacation days every year. This is half of the average of most of the industrialized world. There aren’t even any laws that guarantee American workers paid vacation time, as many new-hires will tell you.

Has this Administration led us into this strenuous economy that makes us work harder while taking away our incentive to do so? The White House has laid claims that, in the next few months, we will be receiving our refund checks and therefore jumpstarting the slumping economy. Logically, this may work. Thank goodness for the Bush Administration, saving us from this recession. Oh wait — what recession?