Republicans: we are now against spending cuts, they're unpopular and won't work

[Indy Texas]

So where are all the "I vote Republican because I'm a sensible American concerned about fiscal conservatism, balanced budgets, and the deficit " people now?

In the Netherlands I'm afraid

Anyway, I never really supported the GOP's deficit alarmism and brutal austerity proposals anyway, but it was a hell of a lot better than their apparent new course (massive tax cuts without any offsetting spending cuts/base-broadening). Slashing food stamps or medicaid never really was necessary, social security and medicare are the main "culprits", so it's best to slow down spending on these programs (by raising the retirement age, reducing social security benefits for higher-earners and seriously looking at cutting medicare spending).

Republicans did manage to slash spending on the state level though. The US passed a lot more austerity than people think, it's just that it were the (predominantly Republican) state governments pushing for austerity instead of the federal government (which is a lot more visible I suppose).

Yes, and that's part of the reason that the post-2009 recovery was so slow and all those Midwest states that were immiserated by Republicans beginning in 2010 voted for Trump.