Reagan's Question: 'Are You Better Off Than You Were 4 Years Ago?' (October 28, 1980) - and Trump Asked It Again in 2024

One week before the 1980 election, Republican nominee Ronald Reagan closed his debate with President Jimmy Carter by handing voters a test. “Next Tuesday is election day. Next Tuesday all of you will go to the polls; you’ll stand there in the polling place and make a decision. I think when you make that decision, it might be well if you would ask yourself, are you better off than you were 4 years ago?” Reagan said, according to the official transcript [1].

Then he kept going. “Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was 4 years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was 4 years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that we’re as strong as we were 4 years ago?” [1]

“And if you answer all of those questions yes, why then, I think your choice is very obvious as to who you’ll vote for,” Reagan said [1].

The video above shows Reagan’s closing statement at the Oct. 28, 1980, debate in Cleveland. Quotes are from the transcript published by the American Presidency Project [1][3][4].

”From New York City to Los Angeles”

Reagan painted a picture of the Carter economy. “This country doesn’t have to be in the shape that it is in. We do not have to go on sharing in scarcity, with the country getting worse off, with unemployment growing,” he said [1].

“We talk about the unemployment lines. If all of the unemployed today were in a single line allowing 2 feet for each one of them, that line would reach from New York City to Los Angeles, California. All of this can be cured, and all of it can be solved,” Reagan said [1].

He pointed to his record in Sacramento. “I know that the economic program that I have proposed for this Nation in the next few years can resolve many of the problems that trouble us today. I know because we did it there,” he said of California [1].

”The Misery Index”

Reagan turned Carter’s own 1976 yardstick against him. “When he was a candidate in 1976, President Carter invented a thing he called the misery index. He added the rate of unemployment and the rate of inflation, and it came, at that time, to 12.5 under President Ford. And he said that no man with that size misery index had a right to seek reelection to the Presidency,” Reagan said [1].

“Today, by his own decision, the misery index is in excess of 20 percent, and I think this must suggest something,” he said [1].

He also made the case for smaller government. “I happen to believe that the Federal Government has usurped powers and autonomy and authority that belongs back at the State and local level,” Reagan said [1].

”There You Go Again”

Earlier in the debate, Carter attacked Reagan on health care. “Governor Reagan, as a matter of fact, began his political career campaigning around this Nation against Medicare,” Carter said. “Governor Reagan, again, typically is against such a proposal.” [1]

Reagan had a four-word answer. “There you go again,” he said, to laughter [1].

“When I opposed Medicare, there was another piece of legislation meeting the same problem before the Congress. I happened to favor the other piece of legislation and thought that it would be better for the senior citizens and provide better care than the one that was finally passed,” Reagan explained [1].

Carter’s Closing

Carter was remembered for another line that night. “I had a discussion with my daughter, Amy, the other day, before I came here, to ask her what the most important issue was. She said she thought nuclear weaponry and the control of nuclear arms,” he said [1].

Carter made his own appeal to turnout. “If one vote per precinct had changed in 1960, John Kennedy would never have been President of this Nation,” he said [1].

By the Numbers

489-49: Reagan’s Electoral College win over Carter a week later [2].
5,719,437: popular votes for independent John Anderson, who won no electoral votes [2].
4: times Reagan said “4 years ago” in his question [1].
12.5 and 20+: the misery index under Ford and under Carter, per Reagan [1].
312-226: Trump’s Electoral College win in 2024 [5].

What Happened Next

Reagan won in a landslide. On Election Day, Reagan carried 489 electoral votes to Carter’s 49, according to the National Archives [2].

Trump asked it again. Forty-four years later, at a rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump asked the same question. “I’d like to begin by asking a question. Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Trump asked. “NO!” the crowd answered [3].

At the Sept. 10, 2024, debate, ABC’s moderator put the question to Vice President Kamala Harris, noting that her “opponent on the stage here tonight often asks his supporters, are you better off than you were four years ago? When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?” [4]

“So, I was raised as a middle-class kid,” Harris answered [4].

In November 2024, Trump won 312 electoral votes to Harris’ 226, according to the National Archives [5].

For Harris dodging a Social Security question two weeks before that election, see HYGO News’ page on Brookfield, Wisconsin.