House GOP strategy: A referendum on Obama Girding for President Obama's effort to paint them as an obstacle to recovery, House Republicans have crafted a minimalist agenda that is designed to turn the November elections into a referendum on the White House's stewardship of the economy. In advance of Tuesday's State of the Union address, Republicans began laying the blame for prolonged joblessness at Obama's feet, sticking in large part to the script that was so successful in the 2010 midterm elections that thrust them into the majority. "Listen, this election's going to be a referendum on the president's economic policies," House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters Tuesday morning. This strategy, however, comes as Obama has gained some traction in recent months with key independent voters on economic issues by focusing the debate on how the jobs plan he unveiled last September was blocked on Capitol Hill, particularly by Boehner's conservative GOP conference in the House. Since last fall, after a bruising spring and summer of trying to negotiate grand bargains with Boehner, the president has been railing against GOP congressional leaders both for blocking his agenda and for what he calls "you're-on-your-own economics." This month, Obama began a new phase of confrontation with House and Senate Republicans by granting recess appointments to nominees for agency posts connected to regulating Wall Street and labor unions, despite parliamentary maneuvers by Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) meant to impede such moves. Obama is expected to continue blaming Republicans at Tuesday's joint session, during which, aides and lawmakers said, he will reiterate support for jobs proposals he has offered in the past and include some provisions that have received previous support from congressional Republicans. Are they going to be willing to put country before party and work with the president to get some things done? Our hope is that they will do that; it's what the country expects," White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said Tuesday morning on Fox News. Over the last week congressional Republicans returned to the Capitol after a year of brinksmanship battles on fiscal matters, each ending with a compromise that deflated the giddy sense of expectations a year ago when they took charge of the House. The year ended amid cross-Capitol shouting among House and Senate Republicans over the plan to temporarily extend the payroll tax holiday - the only major piece of Obama's jobs bill that was enacted, albeit for just two months. As the overall approval of Congress is at historic lows, the Republicans on Capitol Hill also find themselves in a perilous state. Last April, 34 percent of Americans approved of their performance in Congress, statistically equal with Democrats. This month, their support fell to just 21 percent, according to a Washington Post-ABC News Poll, as Democrats remained at 33 percent approval from voters. This left GOP leaders trying to reassure their rank-and-file lawmakers, during a three-day policy retreat in Baltimore last week, that some small change had been enacted last year.