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Political observers are calling President Obama's speech on deficit reduction one of his most confrontational addresses to date. In front of a podium outside the White House, Obama chastised Republicans, calling out House Speaker John Boehner in particular, for dubbing his deficit reduction package "class warfare." "This is not class warfare, it’s math,” Obama said. Speaking of the math, Obama called for $1.5 trillion in new taxes aimed at upper income taxpayers, which would contribute to a 10-year, $4.4 trillion deficit reduction package that also saves money by altering Medicare and Medicaid and scaling back the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here are some of the reactions from the speech.

He was really aggressive Chris Cillizza at The Washington Post calls it a "remarkable act of political gauntlet-throwing" and adds that the speech signifies that "Obama has given over the idea of being the compromiser-in-chief — the prevailing sentiment of the first eight months of 2011 — in favor of taking the fight to Republicans and forcing them to respond in kind or feel the political consequences." During the speech, President Obama accused Boehner of being a hypocrite, noting the House speaker's insistence that no one take a "my-way-or-the-highway" approach. “So the Speaker says we can't have it my-way-or-the-highway, and then basically says my way or the highway,” Obama said, referring to Boehner's refusal to accept tax any increases.. “That's not smart. It's not right.”