If a company repays its bailout funds, 61% of Americans say the government should not regulate the company’s executive pay and bonuses. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 31% disagree.

These numbers mark a sizable change – and a reversal of opinion - from two months ago when 47% said the government should still have the right to regulate the pay and bonuses of a bank’s executives even if a bank repays its bailout. Forty-one percent (41%) disagreed.

Investors (72%) feel even more strongly that the government should bow out once the money is repaid, but only 49% of non-investors agree.

If a company receives a bailout to stay in business and has yet to pay it back, 67% say the government should regulate executive pay and bonuses, and only 27% disagree.

Nearly two-thirds of adults (65%) reject the idea of any government regulation of executive pay for banks and financial firms if they do not receive government funding to stay afloat. But 26% think the government should control the level of pay and bonuses for executives at all such companies.

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Support for government regulation of both bailed-out and non-bailed-out companies is up slightly from March, even though voter anger was high at that time over the $165 million in executive bonuses given out by American International Group (AIG) after it had received a $170 billion taxpayer bailout to stay in business.

Since then, the president has authorized bailouts of two failing automakers, General Motors and Chrysler, despite consistent voter opposition. Voters also continue to believe the bailout of banks and other financial institutions was a bad idea.

Forty-five percent (45%) of Americans say the rest of the new government spending authorized in the $787-billion economic stimulus plan in February should now be canceled.

Republicans are the least likely to favor government regulation of executive pay and bonuses. Seventy-nine percent (79%) of Republicans oppose such regulation once a company has repaid its bailout money, compared to 50% of Democrats and 55% of adults not affiliated with either party.

While 80% of Democrats and 69% of unaffiliateds support government control of executive pay and bonuses for companies bailed out by taxpayers who have yet to repay, just 50% of Republicans agree. But 65% of investors think it’s a good idea.

As for companies that do not receive any bailout help from taxpayers, only 11% of Republicans thing their executive compensation should be subject to government regulation, a view shared by 38% of Democrats and 27% of unaffiliated Americans.

Twenty-three percent (23%) of investors favor government control of executive pay and bonuses at companies that have not been bailed out.

Ten large banks were given permission by the Obama administration this week to repay the government and quit its rescue program for the financial industry. The banks pushed for permission to pay back in large part to avoid restrictions on executive pay that they felt would hurt their competitiveness and recovery. Executives at these banks will not have their pay and bonuses set under a new plan to control compensation proposed this week by the administration.

The government will set compensation limits for executives at bailed-out companies such as AIG, Citigroup, General Motors and Chrysler that have not paid back the money they received.

Most Americans don’t expect GM to repay the bailout funds it is being given as part of its ongoing government-brokered bankruptcy.

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