53% Still Think Auto Bailout Was A Bad Idea [Only 30% think it was a good idea]
Rasmussen Reports
Fifty-three percent (53%) of Americans still think the federal government bailout of General Motors and Chrysler was a bad idea. But confidence that the money will be repaid is up.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 30% of Adults say, looking back, that it was a good idea for the federal government to provide bailout funding for GM and Chrysler. Seventeen percent (17%) are not sure if it was a good idea or not.
Support for the bailout at 30% is unchanged from January, but the number who think it was a bad idea is down five points with some adults shifting into the undecided column. From the time taxpayer bailouts of the two stumbling auto giants were first proposed, most Americans have been opposed.
However, 50% now say it is at least somewhat likely that all the taxpayer money invested in GM and Chrysler will be repaid, a 14-point jump from January. Forty-five percent (45%) think full repayment is unlikely.
These figures include just 22% who say full repayment is Very Likely. At the other extreme, 10% say it is Not At All Likely.....
The survey of 1,000 American adults was conducted on June 10-11, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Men are more critical than women of the auto bailout, but they’re also more confident that all the taxpayer money will be repaid.
Investors like the bailout more than non-investors and think full repayment is much more likely.
Seventy-two percent (72%) of Republicans and 53% of adults not affiliated with either of the major parties say the auto bailout was a bad idea. Democrats are much more closely divided: 43% think the bailout was a good idea, but 36% disagree.
Sixty percent (60%) of Democrats say it’s likely that all the taxpayer money invested in GM and Chrysler will be repaid. Most Republicans (55%) say that’s unlikely. Unaffiliated adults are almost evenly divided on the question.
Forty-eight percent (48%) of all adults say they are likely to buy a car that runs on something other than gasoline in next 10 years or so.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Likely Voters have more confidence in the judgment of a member of Congress who voted against bailouts than in the judgment of one who voted for them.
In January, a plurality (45%) of adults said it was more likely that GM would need additional government money than that the company would become profitable again.
Ford, the one Detroit automaker who didn’t need a bailout to stay in business, remains by far the most popular of the Big Three.
Fifty-one percent (51%) believe the government as the majority owner of GM has a conflict-of-interest when it comes to regulating competing automakers, as in the recent case of Toyota’s safety problems.
....
. |
