'We're broke. Let's be honest,' says Boehner in response to Obama's proposal. | AP Photos GOP mocks Obama's cuts

Republicans who have been on the warpath to cut spending are now giving President Barack Obama grief for proposing to slash a popular program that helps needy families heat and cool their homes.

A GOP document obtained Thursday by POLITICO shows Republicans are eager to prick Obama for his upcoming budget proposal’s call for a $2.5 billion cut to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, a plan that has already angered much of the president’s Democratic base.


The document — titled " Now & Then: Obama on LIHEAP Funding" —contrasts Obama's decision to cut the program by roughly 50 percent with his past advocacy to increase its funding as an Illinois senator and presidential candidate.

"Before Arriving In The White House, Obama Was A Strong Supporter Of Adding Billions Of Dollars To LIHEAP Spending," the GOP document says, citing seven of Obama’s Senate roll call votes in 2005 and 2006, as well as his 2008 campaign's energy plan to permanently expand LIHEAP through a windfall profit tax on oil selling for more than $80 per barrel.

Democrats have been howling ever since they got word of Obama’s plans to cut the LIHEAP program.

"I must say that regardless of the policy choices that will be made by this administration or this Congress, our low-income American families must always be offered, and given, needed assistance to cook and to heat their homes in winter," House Energy and Power Subcommittee ranking member Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) said Thursday.

"I certainly don't agree with his cuts to LIHEAP. I think that's a program, especially in light of what's going on this winter up in the Northeast, that it's not the time to cut funds," Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) told POLITICO. "I'm not going to speculate why he's doing it. I'm just saying I don't agree with it."

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs defended the cuts to the heating assistance program Thursday during a gaggle with reporters on Air Force One.

"We’re going to have to make some tough decisions, and that will sometimes — that’s going to include programs that are important to everybody," Gibbs said.

Asked at a news conference Thursday morning about cutting LIHEAP and other programs for low-income people, House Speaker John Boehner said: "Everything is on the table. We're broke. Let's be honest with ourselves."