Obama creates $30 Billion program to save community banks

WASHINGTON — People are fed up with bank bailouts that risk taxpayer billions. The government's apparent solution: call them something else.

Congress is at work on a new program that would send $30 billion to struggling community banks, in a process similar to the huge federal bailouts of big banks during the financial crisis. This time, money is more likely to disappear as a result of bank failures or fraud.

Two weeks ago, President Barack Obama declared an end to taxpayer bailouts when he signed a sweeping overhaul of financial rules. In his weekly radio and Internet address on Saturday, he described the new bailout program as "a common-sense" plan that would give badly needed lending help to small-business owners to expand and hire.

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