Most Americans like the idea of providing tax credits for first-time home buyers but are less enthusiastic when the price tag is included. They strongly oppose expanding it to existing homeowners, although Congress did just that this week.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% favor the idea of giving first-time home buyers tax credits up to $8,000. President Obama is expected to sign legislation extending that tax credit today.

But support falls to 42% when respondents are informed that the home buyer tax credit program will cost several billion dollars. With the price tag attached, a plurality of voters (45%) are opposed to the plan.

As for expanding the program to existing homeowners and those with higher incomes, just 29% favor the idea and 57% are opposed.

Twenty-seven percent (27%) of adults oppose providing the $8,000 tax credit to first-time home buyers, and 16% are not sure. The levels of support and opposition are basically unchanged from September when the congressional debate on extending the tax credit began to take center stage.

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Women like the tax credit plan better than men, and a plurality (44%) of women continues to support it even when told the cost is several billion dollars. Women are also far less opposed to expanding the program.

Investors are more supportive of the tax credit plan than non-investors by a 13-point margin. Told how much it will cost, investors are evenly divided over the plan, while opposition grows among non-investors. However, both groups are equally opposed to expanding the program.

Adults not affiliated with either major political party are less enthusiastic about the tax credit than Democrats and Republicans.

The partisan numbers change dramatically, though, when the cost of the program is included in the question. Fifty-five percent (55%) of Democrats continue to support it, while 53% of Republicans and 56% of unaffiliateds are opposed.

The majority of all three groups oppose expanding the tax credit plan to those who already own houses and earn more money. Again, unaffiliated adults are more skeptical than Democrats and Republicans.

The first-time home buyer credit was originally included in the economic stimulus plan passed by Congress in February and was set to expire at the end of this month. Under the newly approved plan, the Associated Press reports, “buyers who have owned their current homes at least five years would be eligible for tax credits of up to $6,500. First-time home buyers — or anyone who hasn't owned a home in the last three years — would still get up to $8,000.”

At least $8.5 billion has already been “spent” on the tax credit program. The extension is expected to cost an additional $10.8 billion in lost tax revenue. Supporters of the plan from both political parties argue that it will boost the troubled U.S. housing market.

Americans are more confident than they’ve been all year that housing values are going up and also are more likely to say their home is worth more than they owe on it. But they still don’t think it’s a good time to be selling.

Questions linger about the effectiveness of the original $787-billion economic stimulus plan. Thirty-three percent (33%) of voters say it has helped the economy, while 31% think it has hurt. Twenty-nine percent (29%) believe the plan has had no economic impact.

Some in Congress are considering a second stimulus plan to fight the country’s growing unemployment problem, but 62% of U.S. voters oppose the passage of another economic stimulus package this year.

Voters for the first time are blaming Obama nearly as much as his predecessor, George W. Bush, for the country’s continuing economic problems.

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