Following the Obama administration’s highly-publicized decision to force Rick Wagoner out as head of General Motors last week, Americans are now less supportive of having the government push senior managers out the door.

Forty-three percent (43%) of adults still say the federal government should replace the senior managers of any company that receives taxpayer funding to stay afloat, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. That’s down from 59% in December, a 16-point drop.
Among investors, 40% now say the managers should be replaced, but 31% disagree.

A majority of Democrats (53%) still say the senior managers should be replaced if taxpayer funding is involved, but Republicans are evenly divided. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 40% believe the managers should be replaced, although 26% disagree. There’s been a sizable drop-off in support among all three groups since December.

Overall, 26% do not think the senior managers should be replaced, and 31% are not sure.

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Undoubtedly coloring the views of many Americans is a lack of confidence that the government will make the right decision when it forces out the head of a company that has received a taxpayer bailout. Just 43% are even somewhat confident the government will make the right decision, a figure that includes only 20% who are Very Confident in government decision making.

Overall, 45% are Not Very Confident (31%) or Not at All Confident (14%) in that decision making process.

Sixty-two percent (62%) of Democrats say they are confident the government will make the right decision when it opts to force out the head of a bailed-out company. Just 25% of Republicans and 39% of unaffiliateds agree.

Thirty-eight percent (38%) of investors are confident the government will make the right move, but 50% are not.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in an interview on CBS-TV last week made it clear that the administration is prepared to fire other corporate chief executive officers, including those heading banks, if it feels the bailed-out institutions can be run better by new management.

Moving beyond the companies receiving a federal bailout, only 18% of Americans believe the federal government should have the power to force out the head of any company that is not performing correctly. Sixty-six percent (66%) say the government should not have this power.

Eighty-one percent (81%) of investors think giving the government the power to replace any company head is a bad idea.

The findings are similar to those in another recent survey in which most Americans said the government should only regulate executive pay and bonuses if taxpayers help a company stay in business.

Not that CEOs are particularly well regarded these days. In fact, just 22% of Americans have a favorable view of the CEOs of the nation’s largest corporations, putting them at the very bottom of the opinion ladder, below even members of Congress.

But sizable majorities have consistently said they do not believe the federal government can run things better than the private sector. In the case of the auto industry, for example, those companies seeking federal loans to stay in business – GM and Chrysler – have fallen dramatically in public opinion. The majority of Americans continue to oppose more loans for them, too. Just 14% of Americans think the federal government could run them better, though.

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