The Hill News

Republicans braced Thursday for what they expected to be a highly political speech by President Obama tonight to a joint-session of Congress.

The GOP sought to frame Obama's highly-anticipated speech on jobs creation as little more than an effort to blame Republicans for the poor situation in the U.S. economy, and simply spend more taxpayer money in the meanwhile.

"Mr. President, unemployment isn't a joke. America can't afford more of your broken record policies," the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) charged in a new web video Thursday.

Obama, during his 7 p.m. speech before Congress, is expected to outline and in! troduce what the administration is called the "American Jobs Act." The plan is described as a collection of measures that have previously enjoyed bipartisan support that costs around $300 billion, which would be offset by new revenue-raising provisions.

But that plan already faces a high degree of suspicion from Republicans on Capitol Hill, who see that legislation as little more than a sideshow from tonight's speech, which they fear will become an anti-GOP lecture from the president.

"Such a speech would, no doubt, cheer the most ardent Democratic partisans. But it would do nothing to create jobs," wrote Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in an op-ed in Politico.

The political overtones in tonight's speech stem from August's political maneuvering by the White House, w! hen Obama traveled on a jobs-oriented bus tour, but used most ! of his s peaking opportunities to lament gridlock in Congress and, by extension, Republicans. 

Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), an independent who caucuses with Democrats, admonished Obama against delivering a political address.

"I think if the speech Thursday night is seen as another political speech to the Democratic base, not only is it not going to get anything done up here on Capitol Hill, but I think the American people are going to turn it off," he said on the weekly "Press Pass" feature produced by NBC's "Meet the Press."

The initial decision by the White House to deliver the speech on Wednesday, when it would coincide with a major Republican presidential debate, did little to tamp down suspicion within the GOP that the speech wouldn't be political.

"At this point, most Americans have concluded that the problem with our economy isn’t that Wa! shington is doing too little â€" but that it’s doing too much," McConnell wrote. "Whether you believe this or not, however, there is a simpler reason for opposing the president’s economic agenda that has nothing whatsoever to do with politics: It hasn’t worked as advertised."