President Pushes for More Small Business Lending President Obama is asking Congress to channel $30 billion to community banks for loans to small companies. “Small businesses…have created roughly 65 percent of all new jobs over the past decade and a half,” the president said. ”So we need to make it easier for them to open their doors, to expand their operations, to hire more workers.” The money would come from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (the bank bailout), but it would come without some of the strings that were attached to the TARP payouts. Funds would be available to the roughly 8,000 banks that have less than $10 billion in assets. The White House said those banks make the majority of loans to small companies. But Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire accused the Obama administration of using the TARP fund as “a piggy bank.” According to a fact sheet accompanying the announcement, banks would be given incentives to make more small business loans. “While the Administration’s proposal couldprovide $30 billion in capital to banks, these institutions would typically leverage that funding several times over whenincreasing lending,” the White House said. The lending program is the latest in a series of efforts to put money in the hands of small firms so they will hire more workers. The president wants to provide up to $500,000 in tax credits for companies that hire new employees or give pay raises. His 2011 budget proposes eliminating capital gains taxes on small-business investment. But Obama also proposes raising tax rates on families with income over $250,000 by letting the Bush administration’s tax cuts expire. The ranking Republican on the Senate Small Business Committee, Olympia Snowe of Maine, said that will hurt small business owners. “There is no way they’re going to move forward to job creation,” she said, according to the New York Times. “Who would take the risk?” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geitner said the tax increases would affect only 2% or 3% of small businesses.