White House Response To IRS Scandal Making The Situation Worse

Lending is readily available for small businesses in large and small amounts

When President Obama signed the Small Business Jobs Act last May, much attention was paid to the $30 billion Small Business Lending Fund that would be made available to community banks, credit unions and community development funds. This funding helped address the fact that neither the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds nor industry bailouts specifically helped small businesses. Although the $30 billion in lending was authorized eight months ago, the Treasury Department has yet to distribute these funds, which means the community banks have not been able to boost small business lending as the legislation intended. 

Further complicating the lending picture is the fact that self-employed business owners most often need what would be considered a "micro" loan to any lending institution, including a community bank. A business owner may only need $5,000 to invest in new office equipment or marketing efforts, but loans in such small amounts are not readily available through small business lending programs. Instead, this business owner has to use a personal credit card to make the investment, which typically has much less desirable terms and interest rates than a small business loan. What self-employed business owners need is recognition that these small loans are just as vital to business success as the larger loans that are supposed to be readily available. 

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost