Critics blast speech for lack of details

Critics, however, said Obama's speech lacked substance, touting big ideas but providing little in the way of timelines, deadlines and hard numbers for economic growth and spending cuts.

"I found it somewhat disappointing," said Philip Levy, resident scholar and economist at the American Enterprise Institute.

While acknowledging the need to slash the deficit -- which is projected to hit 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars in 2011, according to the Congressional Budget Office -- Obama failed to provide any specifics, stating only that he would freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years, Levy said.

Other critics charged that spending is already high, arguing that it needs to be lowered, rather than maintained at current levels.

"Obama had in the past said 'we can't deal with the deficit quite yet because we've got a crisis,'" Levy said, "We're now two years on and he didn't have any thoughts on how to deal with the deficit, other than a very minor spending freeze."

The official GOP response to the speech echoed those thoughts. House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan on Tuesday night blasted the president for the country's massive deficit.

Ryan also called for a change in leadership, saying the United States' debt is moving toward "catastrophic levels," adding that Obama's health care reform law is "accelerating our country toward bankruptcy."

Many Republicans say the deficit cannot be lowered if the government is unwilling to weigh cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlement programs they say lie at the heart of the problem. Critics said the speech failed to address the issue in a serious way.

Others, however, cautioned that any cuts must avoid simply taking a meat ax to spending -- some Republicans propose slashing 100 billion U.S. dollars from the budget -- and cutting programs important for the country's long-term growth, a sentiment echoed in the president's speech.