The golden Cinderella carriage that is the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program -- TARP, for short -- will in just a month-and-a-half's time become a pumpkin when legislation that authorized the Department of Treasury to buy or insure up to $700 of "troubled assets" expires on December 31, 2009. The funny thing is that, as of October 1, 2009, more than $317 billion of the $700 billion remained unspent. Why? The exact reasons are fuzzy, but maybe there just aren't that many more troubled assets for Treasury to buy up or insure.

This leads to a uniquely Washingtonian kind of problem -- what to do with all this money?

Of course, members of Congress -- on both sides of the aisle -- are never at a loss when it comes to finding innovative new ways to spend taxpayer money. And such is the case with these TARP funds. With an eye to the next round of elections, Senators and Congressmen and Congresswomen are scrambling to propose new uses for TARP funds -- uses that have nothing to do with buying or insuring troubled assets (nor with applying them to deficit reduction). Proposals include using some of the funds for infrastructure projects, and providing aid to homeowners who are in risk of foreclosure. Yet others want to use the money to fund jobs and put Americans back to work. With only six weeks to load up this golden TARP carriage before it turns into a pumpkin, there's already pressure building to extend the deadline.

However, there is one potential use of TARP funds in particular that small businesspeople need to keep an eye on. More than half of the Democrats in the Senate currently support the idea of using the remaining TARP funds to provide small businesses with easier access to credit. What form this support might take has not yet been defined, but if it does come to pass, then many businesses will finally have the lifeline they need to pull themselves out of the current economic slump. And perhaps the American engine of economic growth will finally have the opportunity to start chugging along once again -- carrying Cinderella along with it.