In his campaign-style speech on Labor Day, President Obama proclaimed that “by almost every measure, the American economy and American workers are better off than when I took office.”

In stark contrast, many Americans, particularly likely voters in competitive U.S. House and Senate races, remain frustrated and gloomy about the state of the economy. According to the latest Politico poll, “[M]any appear to blame President Barack Obama: 57 percent of these voters disapprove of his economic leadership. By every measure in the survey, the poll finds that a gloomy mood still pervades the electorate when it comes to kitchen-table issues.”

Indeed, the dispirited mood of the public regarding the economy is not surprising. America’s post-recession economy has been undergoing the most sluggish recovery in the past seven decades. Five years after the recession officially ended, unemployment still remains at over 6 percent, and fewer Americans either have or are looking for jobs today than at any point since 1978.

Underlying the slow economic rebound and the stagnant job market of the Obama years is the alarming decline of economic freedom in America. As documented in the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, a data-driven annual economic policy analysis by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, America is the only country that has recorded losses of economic freedom in each of the past seven years. In the 2014 Index, the U.S. economy failed to make the list of the world’s 10 freest economies. Trailing comparable advanced economies such as Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Canada, America has fallen steadily to a second-tier “mostly free” economy.

The causes of America’s deteriorating economic freedom are painfully clear. An outdated tax code and increased regulation, which small-business owners have identified as their single greatest problem in doing business, have measurably undermined America’s entrepreneurial dynamism and discouraged job creation. Since 2009, the overall cost of meeting regulatory requirements has increased by over $70 billion, with more than 150 new regulations burdening American businesses and individuals.

The time to act is now. As Americans look to their future more than ever with growing frustration, 2014 should be the year of action to put America back on the path to freedom and revitalize its entrepreneurial pulse.