Will “Forty dollars” take its place next to “Ninety-nine percent”?

by David Safier

Forty dollars. That's the number Democrats are using to characterize the payroll tax cut the Republicans are stonewalling. They must have decided the notion of a thousand dollars a year is too abstract, too long term, to message well. It's that incremental forty dollars — gas for a month, an inexpensive coat for the winter, a portion of a month's winter heating bill, a gift for the children — that resonates.

Today, Obama stood in front of a group of people who would dearly miss that forty dollars to argue for Republicans to vote to extend the payroll tax cut. It's a powerful message.

The 99% understand the value of $40. To the 1% . . . what's $40? They spend more than that on a glass of wine at an upscale restaurant, with lunch.