As the incoming Obama administration and the Democratic congressional leadership scramble for ways to right the U.S. economy, 70% of U.S. voters say a free market is better than one managed by the government.

Just 15% say a government-managed economy is best, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Fifteen percent (15%) are undecided.

But indicative of the mixed feelings that beset many of the nation’s leaders, a majority of voters (52%) also believe there is a need for more government regulation of big business, although 35% disagree. Thirteen percent (13%) aren’t sure. (Last month, just 26% of adults were at least somewhat confident that U.S. policymakers knew what they were doing with regards to the economy).

Overall, voters are more ambivalent about the federal government’s role in the current economic crisis. Forty-eight percent (48%) worry the government will do too much, while 41% fear it will do too little. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure which is a greater concern.

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of voters agree, however, that government and big business often work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors. Only 15% of voters don’t believe that is true, and 20% are undecided.

The Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes, which measure economic confidence on a daily basis, both held steady in the first readings since Christmas but still remain in record low territory.

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Ronald Reagan famously said in his first inaugural address in January 1981 that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” Fifty-nine percent of voters still agree with that view.

Ninety-one percent (91%) of Republicans favor a free market economy over a government-regulated one, as do 76% of unaffiliated voters. Only 49% of Democrats agree.

For 87% of conservatives and 68% of moderates, a free market is better, but among liberals, the choice is less clear. A plurality of liberals (47%) prefer a free market, but 31% say an economy managed by the government is better.

Seventy-two percent (72%) of whites say a free-market economy is better versus 54% of African-Americans.

Men, married voters and those with children at home are most supportive of a free market, as are voters between the ages of 30 and 64.

When asked who was a better president – Reagan, the champion of small government, or Franklin D. Roosevelt, the father of modern U.S. big government with the New Deal, voters give the edge to FDR 45% to 40%.

Fifty-five percent (55%) of male voters worry that the government will do too much in reacting to the nation’s current economic problems, while women are more evenly divided. Forty-two percent (42%) of female voters say government will do too much, but 45% think it won’t do enough.

Seventy-six percent (76%) of Republicans and a bare majority of unaffiliated voters (52%) fear government will do too much. But 61% of Democrats take the opposite view.

Similarly, 72% of Democratic voters say there is a need for more government regulation of big business, compared to 50% of unaffiliateds and 30% of Republicans. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of GOP voters say there is no need for additional regulation, a view shared by 36% of unaffiliated voters and 14% of Democrats.

Perhaps because they fear basic prices will rise with increased government involvement, married voters are 10 points less supportive of regulation that unmarried voters, and those with children at home are 18 points less enthusiastic than those without children in the house.

Just 52% of Democrats think government and big business often work together in ways that are harmful to consumers and investors, compared to 70% of Republicans and 77% of unaffiliated voters.

Seventy-two percent (72%) of Catholic voters, 66% of Evangelical Christians and 62% of other Protestants believe government and big business in combination often hurt investors and consumers.

In mid-November, 44% of adults agreed with President Bush’s statement that "free-market capitalism is far more than an economic theory. It is the engine of social mobility - the highway to the American Dream." Twenty-two percent disagreed, and 33% were undecided.

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