Obama is trumpeting the plan in the face of declining presidential popularity numbers and an upcoming Congressional election in which Democrats are forecast to lose seats.

Steven Kull, director of the International Policy Attitudes program at the University of Maryland, said the president's ratings could drop further if the GOP can portray the bill as another stimulus measure.

Indeed, many Americans view the 787 billion dollar stimulus passed last year as a waste of taxpayer money -- although many economists said it rescued the economy from even further decline -- that ultimately did not create the jobs that many thought it would.

But if the bill becomes law and coincides with a drop in unemployment, it could help Obama in the polls, Kull said.

The U.S. unemployment rate remains in double digits and is not expected to return to pre-recession levels for at least three years, economists said.

Aparna Mathur, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said lending to small businesses would have a positive effect under normal circumstances. But in this harsh economic climate, she said, the bill misses the mark.

"It's not just access to credit right now, it's also demand in the economy," she said. "It's also the climate of uncertainty in terms of investment. And people are uncertain about the kind of taxes that they might be forced to pay in the future given the large size of the federal debt."
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