Public Opposes Automaker Loans, Survey Says

Public Opposes Automaker Loans, Survey Says

Not that it matters at this point, but almost two out of three people surveyed oppose government loans to help automakers, according to the latest Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll released Wednesday.

Congress could vote on as early as today - and likely pass -- a bill that includes $25 billion in low-interest loans to help General Motors, Ford and Chrysler develop more fuel-efficient vehicles.

At the same time, the Bloomberg/LA Times as well as a new Washington Post-ABC News poll show Americans growing increasingly pessimistic about the economy. Auto execs are the first to say consumer confidence is a key indicator for where auto sales go.

Asked about the government rescue plans in generaly, such as the $700 billion bailout of the financial sector, respondents, by a margin of 55 percent to 31 percent, said it's not the government's responsibility to bail out private companies with taxpayer dollars, even if their collapse could damage the economy.

"Why should we help companies that can't help themselves?'' Tara Rook, 36, a Republican voter in Medford, N.J., asked in a follow-up interview and included in a Bloomberg story on the survey. "The government is getting way too involved with private companies."

The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, while it didn't ask specifically about aid to automakers, finds similar coolness toward government initiatives to help businesses in crisis. In that survey, 47 percent said they approve of the steps taken by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve to stabilize the financial markets, while 42 percent said they disapprove.

Americans Pessimistic, Insecure

Six weeks before the presidential election, almost 80 percent of Americans in the Bloomberg-LA Times survey said the U.S. is going in the wrong direction, the biggest percentage since the poll began asking that question in 1991, Bloomberg noted.

Americans are extremely pessimistic about the state of the nation. Eight in 10 people say the country is seriously off on the wrong track. Concern about the country's direction crosses party lines, shared by 83 percent of political independents, 90 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of Republicans.

Eight in 10 respondents say the economy is doing badly, and more than half say it's doing very badly. Seven in 10 of those with annual incomes above $100,000 say the economy's in bad shape, along with almost nine in 10 of those earning between $40,000 and $100,000, and eight in 10 of those making less than $40,000.

Half of those interviewed say they feel less financially secure now than they did six months ago -- four times the number who say they feel more secure.

The Washington Post-ABC News poll, published in Wednesday's edition of the Washington Post, also finds similar pessimism over the economy. Just 9 percent of those surveyed rated the economy as good or excellent, the first time that number has been in single digits since the days just before the 1992 election, the newspaper noted. Just 14 percent said the country is heading in the right direction, equaling the record low on that question in polls dating back to 1973.

Both polls found respondents thought Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama would do a better job handling the financial crisis than Republican John McCain.

An Alternate Viewpoint

Bloomberg's story noted that a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, asking a similar question in a different way, found that Americans, by 57-30 percent, favored government action to save financial companies.

The Pew poll told respondents that the government is "potentially investing billions to try and keep financial institutions and markets secure'' and asked whether that's the right thing to do. The Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll asked whether "the government should use taxpayers' dollars to rescue ailing private financial firms whose collapse could have adverse effects on the economy and market, or is it not the government's responsibility to bail out private companies with taxpayers' dollars?''

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.