Under the plan, $30 billion of the money repaid to taxpayers by Wall Street banks under the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) would be used to create a small business–lending fund to provide capital for loans to community banks.

The proposal has not yet been finalized and questions have surfaced over eligibility requirements for the small businesses trying to access the loan pool. The announcement, though, signals a change in strategy for the Obama Administration since his party's shocking defeat in the Massachusetts special Senate election two weeks ago.

Since the Democrats lost that key Senate seat, the administration has voiced a much tougher stance toward the big banking and insurance community.

In addition to the community bank fund, the White House has announced it is seeking a new $90 billion levy be placed on the nation's largest banks, which are beginning to show huge profits.

Geithner played a key role in helping to bail out insurance giant AIG. So it didn't help Geithner break from his reputation as a pro-big business bureaucrat when AIG recently announced it was going to pay $100 million in bonuses to employees.

While paying the bonuses is totally legal, the symbolism of handing out extravagant sums to bank executives who nearly wrecked the economy with risky investment practices and had to rely on public money to bail them out is troubling to most.

It's too bad it took a wake-up call, delivered in a special election from Massachusetts, to deliver a message the White House should have known long before: giving to Wall Street and ignoring Main Street is bad business.