President Obama today formally launched his proposal to re-direct $30 billion in bailout funds into community banks to bolster small business lending. The money would come from TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program that funded the billions in bank bailouts at the height of the financial crisis.
“The more loans these banks provide to credit-worthy small businesses, the better a deal we’ll give them on capital from this fund,” Obama said in prepared remarks on his plan to re-focus un-obligated bailout money.”
In addition to using the TARP funds for community bank lending to small businesses, Obama wants to coax small businesses to hire more workers by giving employers a credit of up to $5,000 against their payroll taxes for every net new employee they hire in 2010 and by giving businesses a bonus 6.2 percent tax credit on aggregate wage growth in excess of inflation.
Read more at USA Today
