Politico reports:
To understand how hard it is for Washington to make a dent in today’s economy, look back at Treasury’s Small Business Lending Fund, a one-year experiment that closed its window last month after failing to use but a fraction of the $30 billion in capital approved by Congress.Great moments in central planning.
Gene Sperling, now President Barack Obama’s top economic adviser, had championed the idea when he served in Treasury. Despite fierce Republican opposition, community bankers rallied to the “Main Street” agenda on a bipartisan basis. And like Lucy in Peanuts, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) turned the tide when she famously stood up to the Senate’s old-boy establishment and won a late-night 60-37 vote that saved the initiative in July 2010.
