There is $30 billion remaining in the Troubled Asset Relief Program and President Obama is calling for it to be put into a program for small business lending. Under this scheme, which the President first started talking about in October, the government would lend the money to community banks with an eye toward small-business lending. This idea is in response to report that say that although large businesses are having no troubles finding the capital that they need, small businesses are not having such good luck. With small business employing about half of America's work force, the program is not merely a response to a political concern. Improve small business's chance to expand and you will improve the job market and lower the unemployment rate. The plan would offer the attractive rates for small business lending to smaller community banks, which make up the bulk of the nation's small business lenders. Estimates say that more than 8,000 of the country's 8,400 banks would be eligible to participate. The program is structured in such a way as to reward banks who lend more freely to small business and do not hoard their assets. Banks who increase their small business lending by 10% over their 2009 rate can see interest rates as low as 1%. This rate would be locked in for 5 years allowing the banks to repay the Treasury over a long period of time. Obama needs Congresses support for this plan and it has already drawn ire from some members of Congress who say it is not legal to us TARP funds to help small businesses. Also some small business owners are not happy with indirect route that it would take to get the money. They wonder why big business could get direct support and they cannot.