Main Street is vocal about executive pay

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- The U.S. public is split over the federal bailout plan, with 44 percent indicating approval and 42 percent indicating disapproval, a recent survey showed.

Many of those for and against the plan in a recent ABC News/Washington Post survey, were concerned about rich Wall Street executives being let off the hook.

"I don't think we should have to bail out people who are supposed to know what they're doing in the first place, especially when you've got the CEOs of those companies walking out with millions of dollars," Karen Gipson of Olive Branch, Miss., told ABC News.

Gipson said she was for the plan, but David Fett, a computer system administrator from Cedar Rapids was opposed and still thought restrictions on executive pay should be included in the bill.

"They were making plenty on Wall Street and they weren't going to share it with you or me or anybody else," Fett said.

"After this latest round of excesses from the private sector, coming on top of years of corporate scandals including Enron, the public is now beginning to think that it needs protection from the tycoons," said Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkley.