While the Obama Administration is pledging up to $2.5 trillion in support for the troubled U.S. financial system, 56% of Americans oppose giving bankers any additional government money or any guarantees backed by the government.

Twenty percent (20%) support such assistance, and 24% are not sure in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. The polling was done Monday and Tuesday nights. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced the bank bailout plan on Tuesday, but its contents were widely reported before that.

Among those more closely attuned to the workings of the financial industry, opposition is even higher. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of investors oppose the new bailout, compared to 53% of non-investors.

The stock market plunged 4.6% in reaction to Geithner’s plan, and consumer confidence as measured by the Rasmussen Consumer Index fell to an all-time low. The Rasmussen Investor Index remains just slightly above the all-time low it hit in December.

Sixty-seven percent (67%) of adults believe Wall Street will benefit more from the new bank bailout plan than the average U.S. taxpayer. Just 12% say taxpayers will be the beneficiaries of the government bailout. Twenty-one percent (21%) are not sure who will benefit more.

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Fifty-nine percent (59%) say they oppose the $700-billion bank bailout plan that was proposed by the Bush Administration and approved by Congress early last October after the highly publicized failure of Lehman Brothers brought Wall Street’s growing problems home to Main Street. Half of that money is being channeled into the new bailout plan.

Twenty percent (20%) say the first bailout plan was a good idea, and 21% are undecided.

The new numbers represent a jump in opposition to the first plan. Forty-five percent (45%) opposed it at the time it was passed, while 30% supported it. A sizable majority expected Wall Street to benefit more than taxpayers from the bailout, but those numbers also are higher now.

The plurality of Americans (46%) say the earlier bailout plan has had no impact on the U.S. economy. Thirty-six percent (36%) think it has made things worse, while just nine percent (9%) say it has helped the economy.

The new bailout plan which Geithner outlined yesterday “is far bigger than anyone predicted and envisions a far greater role in markets and banks than at any time since the 1930s,” according to the New York Times.

Seventy-two percent (72%) of Republicans and 63% of Americans not affiliated with either major political party are against any additional government money or guarantees for the banking industry as Geithner has proposed. Democrats are almost evenly divided on the question.

While 72% of both Republicans and unaffiliated adults say Wall Street will benefit more from the new bailout plan, just 60% of Democrats agree.

Seventy percent (70%) of investors say Wall Street will be the chief beneficiary, as do 64% of non-investors.

Both Republicans (76%) and unaffiliateds (61%) are highly opposed to the first bailout plan from last October. The plurality of Democrats share that opinion but by a much closer 12-point margin.

The plurality of Democrats (47%) and Republicans (48%) say that bailout has had no impact on the economy, although nearly as many Republicans (41%) believe it has had a negative impact. Most unaffiliated adults are evenly divided between no impact and hurting the economy. Fourteen percent (14%) of Democrats think it helped, but only small percentages of Republicans and unaffiliateds agree.

Most Americans don’t think their political leaders know what they’re doing anyway as they wrestle with the country’s economic problems.

Indicative of Americans’ concerns about the economy is the high level of interest in the banking bailout plan. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say they have followed news stories about the plan very closely, while another 39% say they are following somewhat closely. Just six percent (6%) say they are not following the news at all.

The Obama Administraton is proposing perhaps unprecedented government involvement in the banking industry, but 75% of Americans oppose nationalization of the country’s banks.

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