The Obama Administration and senior congressional Democrats hope to exercise more government control over big banks to keep them from failing, but voters don’t seem too sympathetic right now.

New Rasmussen Reports polling finds that just 28% of voters think some banks are too big too fail. Fifty percent (50%) disagree, and 21% aren’t sure.

Forty-nine percent (49%) of all voters say the best approach to dealing with very large banks is to treat them like all other banks. Twenty-nine percent (29%) say major banks should face extra government regulation, while 17% believe they should be broken into smaller companies.

Americans have consistently opposed bailouts of the financial industry, which helps explain why 64% of all voters say, generally speaking, if a bank is failing, it is better for the economy for the government to let it go out of business. Only 20% say that it’s better for the economy if the government bails out a failing bank to keep it in business. Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure which course is best.

In February, as the government wrestled with how to handle troubled mega-banks like Citigroup, 32% of Americans said some banks are too big to be allowed to fail, while 44% disagreed and 24% were not sure.

Voters earning more than $60,000 per year are more likely to disagree with the idea that some banks are too big to fail than those who make less.

Democrats are evenly divided on the question, but just 24% of Republicans and 22% of voters not affiliated with either party say some banks are too big to be allowed to fail.

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Voters are more closely divided when asked whether the government should break up banks that are considered too big to fail. Forty-three percent (43%) say banks of that size should be broken up by the government into smaller companies. Thirty-four percent (34%) oppose government break-ups of major banks, but 23% are not sure.

While Democrats and unaffiliated voters lean more strongly in the direction of a government-directed break-up of banks that are designated as too big to fail, Republicans tend to think that’s a bad idea.

Sixty-six percent (66%) of GOP voters and 56% of unaffiliateds say the best approach to dealing with very large banks is to treat them like all other banks. A plurality (48%) of Democrats favors subjecting those banks to extra government regulation.

Seventy-three percent (73%) of both Republicans and unaffiliated voters say it is better to let a failing bank go out of business. Democrats are more closely divided.

The New York Times reported on Monday that Congress and the Obama administration are soon about to tackle “how to deal with institutions that are so big that the government has no choice but to rescue them when they get in trouble.” Legislation being planned “would make it easier for the government to seize control of troubled financial institutions, throw out management, wipe out shareholders and change the terms of existing loans held by the institution,” the newspaper said.

Bank companies that in recent years have been allowed to own banks in more than one state are a particular focus of the government because of the perceived widespread economic impact if they fail. But despite the potential risk to the national economy, 61% of voters believe bank companies should be allowed to own banks in more than one state. Nineteen percent (19%) disagree and say banks should not be allowed to operate over state lines. Another 19% are undecided.

One-out-of-two Americans (50%) lack confidence in the U.S. banking system, down from a high for the year of 57% in February.

The administration and the Federal Reserve Board are also moving closer to regulating compensation at major banks and bailed-out financial firms, but most Americans have reservations about how far the government should go.

The majority of Americans say the federal government should place limits on how much banks charge when customers overdraw their bank accounts, but most also think banks should be allowed to charge a higher amount to customers who frequently overdraw their accounts.

Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Americans say most of the taxpayer money given out as bailouts went to the very people who created the country’s current economic crisis.

Eighty percent (80%) feel Wall Street benefited more from the bailout of the financial industry than the average U.S. taxpayer.

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