From the link:
Added incentives for banks to make Small Business Administration-backed loans will continue through the end of March, thanks to a fresh funding infusion authorized by Congress as part of Tuesday’s bill extending unemployment benefits.
Since early last year, the SBA has waived its fees and offered banks guarantees of up to 90% on the small business loans the agency backs. Created as part of the Recovery Act, the deal sweeteners helped SBA-backed lending rebound from its near collapse in late 2008, in the wake of the financial crisis.
Congress initially authorized the incentives to continue through September of this year, but the measures proved so popular that their funding was quickly exhausted. The SBA has been relying since late November on temporary extensions to keep the incentives running.
The unemployment benefits extension bill — passed by the Senate and signed by President Obama late Tuesday after Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., dropped his objection — allocates $60 million to fund the program’s subsidies for another month.
Just this issue alone illustrates how Bunning’s so-called “principled” roadblock tactic put real short-term hurt on Main Street. Over 100,000 federal employees missed a paycheck because of that asshat’s grandstanding. How would you like to make a mortgage, or other bill, payment late because one Senator wanted to make an inane point about federal spending? Particularly a Senator who offered no fiscal backbone for eight years of profligate federal spending with zero attempt to pay for the outlay under the previous administration.
