President Obama on Tuesday night tapped Vice President Joseph Biden to lead “a tough, unprecedented oversight effort” to make sure the public’s money is not wasted in any of the administration’s multi-billion dollar reform and economic plans.

With the president’s pledge in mind, 46% of Americans are at least somewhat confident that taxpayer money will be wisely and carefully spent. That figure includes 14% who are very confident of that fact.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey also found that 50% are not confident the money will be carefully spent, including 28% who are not at all confident.

The president promised the close oversight in his first speech to the Congress. Seventy percent (70%) watched the speech or read news stories about it. Just 28% did not. The survey was taken on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Predictably, there is a partisan split over how effective the Obama Administration’s oversight efforts will be. Seventy-four percent (74%) of Democrats express confidence their money will be wisely and carefully spent, including 27% who are Very Confident.

But 78% of Republicans do not share that confidence, including 49% who are not at all confident.

Americans not affiliated with either major party are nearly as skeptical, with 64% who are not confident in the proposed oversight. Thirty-four percent (34%) are not confident at all.

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In the Tuesday night speech, Obama listed health care reform, development of new sources of energy and ensuring that every child has “a complete and competitive education” as his top priorities. He also repeated his intention to cut the federal deficit in half in four years. Americans say cutting the deficit is the most important of those goals and also the least likely to be achieved.

Obama’s approval ratings have risen slightly since the speech in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.

Fifty-six percent (56%) of investors lack confidence that taxpayer money will be wisely and carefully spent, compared to 45% of non-investors.

Still, investor confidence, after hitting record lows early in the week, picked up slightly for the second straight day on Friday.

Earlier this month, 52% of Americans said it is very likely that a large amount of taxpayer money in the proposed bank bailout plan and the new $787-billion economic recovery plan will be wasted, due to inadequate oversight by the government.

Given the choice between federal bailouts for the auto companies, the finance industry and financially trouble homeowners or no bailouts for any of them, a majority of Americans say no bailouts period.

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