OK, so he's not Austan Goolsbee, but White House economic adviser Brian Deese makes a decent sell of the payroll tax cut. Mr. Deese even holds up a smaller "Wonk Board" -- by that point, I was already thinking he might be Wonkblog Ezra Klein's brother from another mother.
This one's five minutes of technical that won't hurt:
When you give a typical family tax relief, it's not likely to just sit in their bank account. In fact, most of that tax relief gets spent on anything from groceries to a family going out and having their car repaired. When families spend money on these items, what it does it provides increased demand, increased business for local companies.
And that makes companies hire more people, who then have money to spend. That's how you grow the economy.
It's worth noting that Mr. Deese also just flat calls out Republicans for tying the payroll tax cut to tax relief for the rich and to "old political battles" like health reform and the Keystone XL pipeline. A little policy, a little politics.