Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Americans are looking to big government to dig the country out of the financial crisis, a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll shows.

A plurality of voters support the $700 billion financial- market rescue bill President George W. Bush signed into law Oct. 4. That is a turnaround from a Bloomberg/Times poll in September, when a solid majority said it wasn't the government's responsibility to bail out private companies.

The poll conducted Oct. 10-13 also finds that Americans favor the federal government providing assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure, by a greater than 2-to-1 margin. And almost three-quarters say they believe insufficient government regulation contributed to the financial and housing crises, up sharply from September.

Poll respondents say they want government to step in.

``They have to do something to spur the economy, otherwise we'll be further in the hole than we already were,'' says Mike Hackenberg, 36, an independent voter and warehouse worker who is studying to be a teacher in Rainier, Oregon. ``They're making the right effort to back the banks and reassure foreign investors.''

Democrat Rudolph Green, a retiree in St. Louis, Missouri, agrees.

`Turmoil'

``The world is in turmoil,'' he says. ``For people who are trying to pay their mortgages, they need a little help.''

Reece Trebett, a retired steelworker in Chandler, Arizona, says the 11 percent increase in the Dow Jones Industrial average Oct. 13 -- the biggest single-day rally in seven decades -- showed the Treasury's plan may calm the waters.

``The response in the stock market today is evidence it might work,'' says Trebett, 66, a Republican.

At the same time, some respondents say they are uncomfortable about the way the rescue is being handled.

``They should have done it differently,'' says Virginia Nerlove, 58, a retired accountant and Republican voter in Henderson, Nevada, which has been hit hard by the housing bubble. ``They bailed out the banks instead of the people.''

In addition, by a margin of 48 percent to 44 percent, poll respondents say they aren't certain the steps taken by the government will be enough.

``We're helping out these bigger banks, maybe that will trickle down eventually, but who knows,'' says Republican Joyce Berry, 67, a retired nurse in Port Orchard, Washington.

Insurgent Candidates

Democratic and Republican challengers across the country have been running against incumbents who backed the financial- rescue plan. The survey suggests that approach won't work, with 60 percent of respondents saying a candidate's position on the bailout wouldn't affect their vote on Nov. 4.

Overall, most respondents -- 51 percent -- say they feel threatened by the financial turmoil, while just 23 percent say they don't. At the same time, 59 percent describe their own personal finances as very or fairly secure, and 38 percent say they are fairly or very shaky.

Asked how easily they could get access to $1,000 in cash within a week for an emergency, almost two-thirds say it would be easy, and about one-third say it would be difficult or impossible. Among those in households with incomes of more than $100,000, 88 percent say it would be easy; among those in households making less than $40,000, 55 percent say it would be difficult to get the cash.

There is no dispute among respondents about the state of the economy, with nine in 10 saying it is doing poorly. This view is common to all income, age and geographic groups in the poll of 1,543 adults nationwide, which has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Yet, perhaps due to the government's rescue efforts, a plurality of voters say they believe the economy will do better six months from now. The response to that question, however, varies according to income level. Most lower-income voters say the economy will get worse or stay the same, and those in the upper brackets say it will get better.

To contact the reporters on this story: Edwin Chen in Washington at echen32@bloomberg.netMatthew Benjamin in Washington at mbenjamin2@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: October 14, 2008 17:00 EDT