During the 1980 presidential campaign, there was but one debate between the incumbent president, Democrat Jimmy Carter, and his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan. Carter insisted on excluding third-party independent John B. Anderson from participating.

Finally, just 13 days before the election, Carter got his way. It was disastrous for him but a blessing for our country. In the closing moments of this single debate on Oct. 28, Reagan looked into the camera and asked the American people a question: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”

Voters of all stripes, stunned by Carter’s weak-kneed foreign policy and his disastrous handling of our economy, responded with a resounding “NO!” By asking the question, Reagan transformed a close race into a landslide victory.

Now, in November 2021, with another feckless, weak-kneed president’s disastrous foreign policy and domestic socialist initiatives wreaking havoc on our economy, we pose a similar question for all Americans: Are you better off today than you were 10 months ago?

According to polls showing President Joe Biden’s approval rating falling everyday — 57% of Americans disapprove of the job he is doing — Americans are answering our question the same way they answered Reagan’s, with a resounding “NO!”

Biden came into office having made dozens of bold promises. He vowed to eliminate the COVID-19 pandemic, a pledge he has failed to keep even with government “mandates” requiring employers to fire employees who refuse to be “vaccinated” with a government medicine.

Ironically, Biden promised to improve our economy despite the fact it was already functioning at record levels when he came to office. Instead, his socialist programs, “Green New Deal” attacks on traditional energy and paying Americans to stay home rather than work have created shortages of workers, essential goods, a supply chain debacle and massive inflation driving many small businesses to close.

Biden swore to “fix immigration problems” on our southern border — an issue largely solved by policies of the previous administration and a wall. Instead, Biden has all but eliminated our southern border and created an unmitigated humanitarian and domestic fiscal disaster. The Biden “team” is now prepared to pay illegal “border crossers” hundreds of thousands in U.S. taxpayers’ dollars as “restitution” for entering our country illegally.

Biden claimed he would “restore America’s credibility” by ending our longest war in Afghanistan. Instead, his catastrophic decisions abandoned American citizens and U.S. allies to become hostages to radical Islamists, humiliated the men and women of our armed forces and damaged our ability to deter war.

Allowing radical, left-wing, “Progressive Democrats” to pull his strings, Biden has joined Marxist ideologues in seeking “absolution” for Americans’ supposed racial wrongs by pandering to radical opportunists seeking victim status for wrongs they never suffered. Sensing they now have a president who can be manipulated, the far-left wing of the Democratic Party has forged ahead with a catastrophic “defund the police” movement.

The latest theme of the Biden presidency is “Build Back Better.” But those of us who are paying already inflated prices for gasoline, bread, milk, eggs, butter, heat for our homes and other essentials know things are not as they should be. Americans who go to grocery stores only to find bare shelves while hundreds of fully laden cargo ships sit unloaded in ports know things aren’t better.

Americans who live from paycheck to paycheck know we aren’t better off when we hear Biden talk. Are you better off than you were 10 months ago? Let us know.

COPYRIGHT 2021 OLIVER L. NORTH AND DAVID L. GOETSCH