One long, heavy sigh.

President Obama doesn’t take mulligans when he plays golf. The same cannot be said for the way he governs. Just weeks after negotiations over the debt limit hobbled the nation and his presidency, Obama appeared in the Rose Garden on Monday to do what he had not done before: He laid out a specific plan for deficit reductions, including more than $1 trillion in new taxes, and promised to veto any plan that cut entitlements without raising taxes on wealthier Americans and corporations.

In place of general statements about “balance” and “compromise,” Obama proposed $310 billion in new cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs, $270 billion in other cuts and reforms, and $1.5 trillion in new tax revenue that Obama said would be borne mainly by the wealthiest Americans and corporations. The President spent much of July publicly minimizing the differences between himself and Republican House Speaker John Boehner as he chased after an elusive “grand bargain” on deficit reduction. But now he described a sharp contrast, and offered two ultimatums: First, the promise to allow all the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts to expire at the end of 2012 if Congress cannot reach a tax reform agreement, and secondly, a promise to veto any bill that takes a dime from Medicare beneficiaries without raising taxes on the wealthy and large corporations.

“Middle class families should not pay higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires,” Obama said, laying out a message that will likely carry him through next year’s election. “That’s pretty straightforward. It’s hard to argue against that.”

It was a speech designed to shift the debate over spending and taxation onto Democratic turf, away from the debate on spending toward a debate on what is fair for the middle class. “Anybody who says we can’t change the tax code to correct that,” he continued, “anyone who has signed some pledge to protect every single tax loophole so long as they live, they should be called out. They should have to defend that unfairness, explain why somebody who’s making $50 million a year in the financial markets should be paying 15% on their taxes when a teacher making $50,000 a year is paying more than that, paying a higher rate. They ought to have to answer for that.”

Obama went so far as to name names, calling out his old negotiating partner, Boehner, for laying down his own iron clad marker, by promising not to raise taxes. “The Speaker says we can’t have it ‘My way or the highway’ and then basically says ‘My way or the highway,’” Obama said. “That’s not smart. It’s not right.”