The Complete Guide To What To Expect From Barack Obama's Jobs Speech Tonight

  x You have successfully emailed the post. President Barack Obama will address a Joint Session of Congress tonight at 7 p.m. to present his economic growth plan, "The American Jobs Act" to the American people.

The speech comes at a pivotal moment in Obama's presidency, under pressure from both sides of the aisle to get Americans back to work.

His plan may top $400 billion — a number that will undoubtedly draw criticism from Republican lawmakers worried about debt and deficits.

Obama has not shared his plan with congressional Republicans, despite their requests to be consulted before the speech, and he may even present his proposal as a formal bill that he will demand Congress take up and bring to a vote.

Speaker of the House John Boehner has invited more than a dozen executives from "job creating" companies who he says are impacted by the Obama administration's regulatory actions.

Here's what we've learned about Obama's plan so far from administration and Democratic sources:

The single-largest component of the bill will be an extension and expansion of the payroll tax cut to benefit employers as well as their employees. The estimated cost of this measure is between $120 billion to $140 billion.

He is also expected to unveil a new small business tax cut, which combined with increased transfer payments to state and local governments would cost $100 billion.

Obama will push for the extension of unemployment benefits, and may introduce a job creation initiative modeled on a Georgia program to allow business to take on unemployed workers for a trial period without paying them. (The workers would receive unemployment benefits in lieu of salary.) These plans would run to at least $50 billion.

The long-promised infrastructure bank to invest in schools, bridges and other projects would cost another $100 billion.

The plan is "fully paid for" through a combination of closing corporate tax loopholes and "asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share." It's not clear whether these are immediate offsets, or if the savings will be realized over 10 years.

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