President Obama hopes to use money still unspent from the $787-billion economic stimulus plan to fight the nation’s 10% unemployment rate, and one of the ideas on the table is to channel money to states to keep them from laying off public employees.

But a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 22% of Americans favor providing federal bailout funds to states with serious financial problems. Fifty-eight percent (58%) oppose giving bailout money to financially troubled states.

On top of that, 56% of Americans oppose the passage of another economic stimulus package this year. While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional Democrats are hoping to spend more to combat unemployment, just 33% favor another stimulus plan.

Thirty-six percent (36%) of voters believe the first stimulus plan passed in February has helped the U.S. economy, but 34% say it has hurt the economy.

Most Americans (53%) believe the U.S. economy will be helped more by decisions made by business leaders to help their own businesses grow rather than by decisions made by government officials. Just 29% say decisions made by government officials to help the economy grow will do more.

By a 59% to 24% margin, voters believe that an increase in government spending will hurt the economy.

Voters hold these views at a time when they don’t expect the economy to turn around soon. Looking ahead to a year from now, 67% expect unemployment will be the same or higher than it is today. But, 76% still prefer a free market economy over a government-managed approach.

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In fact, 51% of voters say more jobs would be created if the remaining spending planned in the first stimulus plan was cancelled right away.

Investors are much more strongly opposed to state bailouts and another stimulus plan than non-investors.

While 77% of Republicans and 60% of adults not affiliated with either party think bailouts for states are a bad idea, Democrats are much more narrowly divided on the question.

Fifty percent (50%) of Democrats favor passage of another stimulus package, but 85% of Republicans and 52% of unaffiliateds are opposed.

Thirty-three percent (33%) of all adults say the federal government should hire people who are unemployed and can’t find work. However, 43% oppose such government hiring.

Nearly half (47%) of Democrats favor government hiring to fight unemployment, while 67% of Republicans disagree. Unaffiliated adults tend to oppose the idea of government hiring but by a much smaller margin.

After three months of gains, the Rasmussen Employment Index dropped more than four points in November to its lowest level since July. Just 14% of workers now say their employers are hiring, the lowest total since February. Twenty-nine percent (29%) say their firms are laying people off.In July, 62% opposed bailouts for states.

These figures mark a slight increase in support for a second stimulus from a survey in October.

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