Americans oppose government loans, bailouts

In the latest Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll, nearly two out of three people responding are against providing $25 billion in low-interest loans to help Chrysler, Ford and General Motors develop more fuel-efficient vehicles. Despite the opposition, Congress is likely to approve a bill funding the loans before the end of this month but without key changes sought by the automakers that would have reduced the required improvements.

Americans also are strongly against the proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial industry and place the blame for the current crisis on Wall Street and the Bush administration. By a 24-percent margin (55 percent to 31 percent), those participating in the survey say the government should not use taxpayer dollars to bail out private companies, even at the risk of damaging the economy.

Bloomberg says the poll was taken September 19-22 and included 1,428 adults nationwide. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.