Published October 09, 2008 07:31 am - INDIANAPOLIS — A new statewide poll found Indiana voters opposed by a 2-1 margin the $700 billion government bailout of the financial industry.
7:30 a.m.: Poll shows Hoosiers oppose bailout
The Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS — A new statewide poll found Indiana voters opposed by a 2-1 margin the $700 billion government bailout of the financial industry.
The WISH-TV Indiana Poll released Wednesday night found 62 percent disapproved of the bailout plan while 31 percent favored it. Seven percent said they were not sure.
An even larger majority — 72 percent — said taxpayer money shouldn’t be used to protect private companies from financial losses. Seventeen percent said it should while 11 percent weren’t sure.
Yet majorities of those surveyed said the government should protect the home mortage industry (58 percent) and individual mortage holders facing foreclosure (56 percent).
Corporations drew most of the blame for the crisis (31 percent) followed by lack of government oversight (30 percent). Only 10 percent of those surveyed blamed individual borrowers.
More people said they trusted Democrat Barack Obama (33 percent) to handle the crisis than Republican John McCain (22 percent), but an even larger number (45 percent) said they were not sure.
The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
The poll was a telephone survey of 800 likely voters conducted by Maryland-based Research 2000 from Sept. 29-Oct. 3, while Congress was working to pass the bailout bill signed Friday by President Bush.
Indiana’s House delegation voted 5-4 against the bailout Friday as it passed days after the chamber rejected an earlier version. Both Indiana senators voted for the revised bill Thursday.