Americans Sour on GSEs, Unsure on Wall Street Regulation

A survey conducted for the ""American Action Forum"":http://americanactionforum.org/ (AAF) shows the majority of American voters view Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac unfavorably and would support phasing out the mortgage giants.

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The poll, conducted by media and research firm ""On Message Inc."":http://onmessageinc.com/, used a sample of 1,200 likely voters across 18 congressional districts from around the country. Survey respondents were broken into three different groups: those living in conservative districts, those living in districts that lean Democratic, and those in swing districts.

The survey found that the enterprises have yet to recover in the public eye, with 52 percent of those surveyed saying they view the companies unfavorably and only 20 percent viewing them favorably. Wes Anderson, the partner at On [COLUMN_BREAK]

Message who oversaw the poll, described the public image of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as ""nearly toxic.""

""Even a majority of Democrat voters are negative toward both entities,"" Anderson noted. ""Voter opinions about Fannie and Freddie and their future all but collapse when reminded about the massive nature of taxpayer bailouts they received.""

According to the survey, 52 percent of potential voters favor phasing the companies out.

""We have known for years that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played central roles in the 2008 financial crisis and the right policy course is to be phase them out,"" said AAF president Douglas Holtz-Eakin. ""It is fascinating to see that, across party lines, the public also shares this view.""

On the topic of Wall Street, 52 percent of voters said their greatest concern is the lack of accountability and the possibility of another bailout should another ""too big to fail"" firm get into trouble.

However, despite their concerns about Wall Street and its influence on the economy, respondents weren't sure about recent banking regulations, with 38 percent saying they'll cause more harm than good and 41 percent saying they'll be helpful.

""More importantly, neither supports nor opponents of these new regulations reach 50 percent,"" Anderson said. ""The real finding here is that the voters know very little of this subject and therefore have not formed an opinion on the matter.""