Voters Repudiate Bailouts and Bailout Secrecy: Warning to Republicans on Corruption in Election Day Poll

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released the results of a new Election Day poll conducted Tuesday, November 2, 2010, in partnership with the polling company™, inc./WomanTrend concerning the attitudes of mid-term voters on a variety of subjects, including the government bailouts, government secrecy and political corruption.  Highlights include:

• Nearly two in three actual voters surveyed (63%) said the new Congress should “never” authorize using taxpayer funds to bailout or to buyout privately-owned businesses.  Only 10% of voters support bailing out companies “too big to fail.”
• 68% of actual voters surveyed said corruption played a major role in the financial crisis with 47% saying corruption played a “very major role.”
• 67% of actual voters said they believe the records regarding how the Treasury Department has spent bailout funds should “definitely be made available” to the public, while only 13% of voters said the records should “definitely be kept secret” – a ratio of 5:1.
• 82% of actual voters said they believed the level of government corruption in Washington has either increased (43%) or stayed the same (39%) over the last two years.  68% of actual voters said they believe the level of government corruption in Washington will either increase (24%) or stay the same (44%) over the next two years.
• A total of 50 points separated those voters who say the average American has too little information about how their tax dollars are spent, and those who say such access to this information is “about right” (71%-21%) .
• By a 2-to-1 ratio, respondents believed that major legislation from the last two years (healthcare, economic stimulus and bailouts) made it more difficult to make the government account the use of taxpayer dollars – (62%-28%).
• Nearly 80% of actual voters who participated in the 2010 elections sensed that government grew larger during the first two years of the Obama administration, a development that a 51%-majority viewed negatively.

“The American people sent a crystal clear message to their leaders in Washington, DC, on Election Day:  They think the government is too big, too secret and too corrupt.  And they do not want any more government bailouts, ever,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “Republicans have major work to do – even their own supporters don’t believe Washington will get any less corrupt.  This poll is a warning to Republicans (and Democrats) in the new Congress that they had better shrink the size of government, make it more transparent, end bailouts and rein in corruption.”

Overall, the polling company™, inc./WomanTrend surveyed 834 actual voters in the November 2, 2010, mid-term elections.  The margin of error is ± 3.5%.  All voters had already cast their votes prior to participating in the poll.