Only 28% Say Some Banks Are Too Big To Fail
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.
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.
Questions linger about the effectiveness of the $787-billion economic stimulus plan proposed by President Obama and passed by Congress in February.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Americans say the federal government should place limits on how much banks charge when customers overdraw their bank accounts, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Despite reports of slowing inflation from Federal Reserve policymakers, Americans remain highly concerned about the issue and lack confidence in the Fed to keep inflation under control.
One-out-of-two Americans (50%) still lack confidence in the U.S. banking system, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Time Magazine refers to it as the Obama administration's "stealth stimulus," pumping more government money into the economy without packaging it as a politically unpopular second economic stimulus plan. One of the new ideas is a proposed one-time $250 payment to seniors who for the first time in years won't be getting a cost of living increase in their Social Security checks because inflation's down.
Most Americans like state lotteries and think they’re one thing that state governments should run them rather than the private sector.
The British government is selling a number of things it owns to pay off its growing debt, but voters have mixed feelings about the U.S. government doing the same thing. Amtrak and the ownership stakes in General Motors and Chrysler can go, as far as voters are concerned, but don’t touch the government’s land and the U.S. Postal Service.
Americans are more confident than they’ve been all year that housing values are going up and also are more likely to say their home is worth more than they owe on it. But they still don’t think it’s a good time to be selling.
Some in Congress are considering a second stimulus plan to fight the country’s growing unemployment problem, but 62% of U.S. voters oppose the passage of another economic stimulus package this year.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi floated the idea of a national sales tax in a recent television interview, but a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 67% oppose a national sales tax on all goods and services.
Forty-nine percent (49%) of American adults now say that the U.S. economy will be stronger in five years than it is today. That figure is down from 58% in July and 64% in March.
Twenty-six percent (26%) of American workers now say their employers are laying people off. That’s down from 28% a month ago and 30% two months ago. It’s the lowest number reporting layoffs since last November.
Americans are slightly more confident that government action can help the housing market, but a sizable majority continues to believe that the market will only improve when the overall economy gets better.
Confidence in the $787-billion economic stimulus package approved by Congress in February has reached a new high. Thirty-six percent (36%) of likely voters now say the package has helped the economy, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Most Americans favor the soon-to-expire program that provides first-time home buyers with tax credits of up to $8,000, at least until they hear how much it costs.
Ask most Americans what car they definitely plan to buy next, and, perhaps surprisingly, General Motors edges Ford and Toyota. But Toyota is the one most folks are willing to at least consider.
With the health care debate raging in Washington, D.C., there’s one change Americans clearly believe in: Members of Congress have now surpassed corporate CEOs to hold the least favorably regarded profession in the country.
A new government report concludes that taxpayers are unlikely ever to be repaid for much of the bailout money already given to General Motors, but 57% of Americans believe it’s likely the government will have to provide even more bailout funding to keep GM in business. That figure includes 23% who say an additional funding request is very likely.
President Obama in a speech on Wall Street this week repeated his call for greater oversight of the U.S. financial system, but opposition to more government regulation in that area of the economy has now risen to 53%.