Obama: We're not better off than before

President Barack Obama said Monday that Americans aren't better off than they were four years ago as the struggling economy and high unemployment have taken a toll.

Looking ahead to next year's election, the incumbent called himself the underdog in the 2012 presidential campaign, though he said he doesn't mind the label. The Democrat said it's a role that he is used to.

In an interview with ABC News, Obama was asked how he planned to convince people they're better off now than they were four years ago -- the formulation Ronald Reagan famously used to defeat President Jimmy Carter in 1980.

"I don't think that they're better off than they were four years ago," Obama said. "They're not better off than they were before Lehman's collapse, before the financial crisis, before this extraordinary recession that we're going through. I think that what we've seen is that we've been able to make steady progress to stabilize the economy but the unemployment rate is still way too high."

The president says the next election is going to be about who the public believes shares their vision for the future. He says he believes the American people still back his approach to governing, even if he hasn't always been able to get his measures passed in Congress.

Recent polls show Obama's public approval ratings holding steady in the low 40 percent range.

Earlier Monday, Obama demanded that Congress vote on his jobs legislation package this month despite signs that the full measure faces stiff resistance. "I'm ready to sign it," the president said.

A leading House Republican, however, says that while lawmakers will vote on elements of the president's jobs bill, his broad $447 billion proposal will not be considered in its entirety.

"This all or nothing approach is unreasonable," said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia.

The White House says it is not prepared to bargain away aspects of the bill at this point, and senior administration officials seemed intent on putting Republicans on the spot by insisting on a vote on the complete Obama bill. Since introducing the bill three weeks ago, the president has mounted a steady public campaign for his bill, trying to cast Congress and Republicans in particular as obstacles.

"What we don't see the need to do is negotiate away aspects of the bill that are noncontroversial, are broadly supported by the American public, broadly supported by Democrats and Republicans, before there is a chance to vote on the bill," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.