-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- President Obama took his renewed jobs push beyond the Washington beltway again Tuesday , heading to the politically critical state of New Hampshire for a town hall meeting . The president used the event to spotlight his call for a $ 30 billion investment in a new small-business lending fund . Obama 's initiative would recycle $ 30 billion of the remaining Troubled Asset Relief Program funds into a government lending program offering cheap capital to community banks that boost their small-business lending this year . This measure will help ensure `` small businesses are once again the engine of job growth in America , '' Obama said in the city of Nashua . It 's `` absolutely critical that Congress acts '' to help pass this and other job creation legislation . While credit conditions for large businesses have improved over the past year , small companies are still widely reporting problems finding the capital they need to fund their operations . Since small businesses employ about half of American workers , policymakers worry that the ongoing credit crunch they face is contributing to the nation 's high rate of job losses . Under Obama 's plan , banks with assets of less than $ 10 billion would be able to borrow money from the Treasury at a dividend rate as low as 1 percent if they use the cash to make more small-business loans this year than they did in 2009 . Obama 's visit to New Hampshire , several political analysts said , was part of the White House 's ongoing effort to recapture sorely needed political momentum . The state , which is home to the first-in-the-nation presidential primary , is considered in many ways to be a political bellwether for an administration struggling to maintain the support of independent voters . More than 40 percent of the state 's voters were registered as independents as of last November , according to the New Hampshire secretary of state 's office . Obama easily carried the state in the 2008 general election , but a slight plurality of New Hampshire voters disapproved of his job performance in a December 2009 American Research Group survey . Tuesday 's trip was Obama 's second visit to New Hampshire since becoming president . While the town hall participants gave his small-business proposal a warm reception , they also raised questions about a series of other issues , including education , energy independence , government transparency and health care reform . `` We 're in the red zone . We 've got to punch it through , '' Obama said about the stalled health care legislation . `` I do not quit . We are going to get that done . '' Obama said supporters of the legislation `` have to move methodically and -LSB- ensure -RSB- the American people understand exactly what 's in the bill . '' Efforts to pass a comprehensive reform bill have been frozen since Massachusetts GOP Sen.-elect Scott Brown won the seat previously held by Ted Kennedy , who died last August . Brown 's victory stripped Democrats of their 60-seat Senate supermajority and gave Republicans enough votes to block most bills . CNN 's Catherine Clifford and Alan Silverleib contributed to this report .