64% Opposed to More Auto Bailout Bucks

Big Business CEO Approvals Ratings Stink - Even Worse Than Congress

General Motors and Chrysler are back for $22 billion more in taxpayer money, but 64% of U.S. voters are opposed to providing any more loans for the embattled automakers. Ford hasn’t ask for a penny, and says it believes it can make it on its own.
Twenty-four percent (24%) support more loans for GM and Chrysler, and 11% are undecided in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Forty-four percent (44%) say it is better for the U.S. economy to let companies like General Motors fail than for the federal government to provide subsidies that will keep them in business. Thirty-three percent (33%) say subsidies are the better way to go, and 23% are not sure.
In December, just 40% thought it was better to let the auto companies fail.
57% say the government is not likely to get the money back. Only 41% think the loans are even somewhat likely to be re-paid, a figure that includes 12% saying it’s Very Likely.
Sixty percent (60%) of Democrats say it’s likely the taxpayer-backed loans to the auto companies eventually will be paid off. Only 27% of Republicans and 34% of unaffiliated voters agree.
The loan requests - and the major restructuring plans both companies are required to produce by March 31 - must be approved by President Obama’s new Cabinet-level Presidential Task Force on Autos. But just 13% of voters think the automakers will run better if they are run by the federal government.
Seventy-one percent (71%) believe federal government oversight will make them run worse. These numbers are up slightly from a survey in early December.
Contributing to the lack of support for automakers is the miserable approval ratings of chief executive officers of the nation’s largest corporations who are viewed favorably by just 22% of American adults, lower even than the ratings earned by members of Congress.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 26% now have a favorable opinion of the nation’s legislators. Both CEOs and those in Congress are viewed Very Favorably by only three percent (3%) of Americans.
Stockbrokers and financial analysts (37%) as well as journalists and reporters (38%) are held in higher regard. Lawyers (41%) and bankers (44%) do even better.
At the top of the list in terms of favorability are small business owners (92%), those who start their own businesses (88%) and pastors and other local religious leaders (72%).