Voters don’t care much for government regulation of the economy and think it has a bigger negative impact on small business.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 70% of Likely U.S. Voters believe government regulations hurt small businesses more than big businesses. Just 13% think big businesses are hurt more. Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here).

Sixty-three percent (63%) think big businesses take advantage of the political process to hurt smaller competitors. Only 15% disagree, although 22% more are not sure.

These findings mark little change from October of last year.

This skepticism is perhaps not surprising considering that most voters have said in surveys for years that government and big business work together against the interests of consumers and investors.

Voters overwhelmingly prefer a free market economy to an economy managed by the government, and most voters believe increased competition rather than increased government regulation is the best way to hold big business accountable.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 6-7, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.