WASHINGTON – Trillions of dollars in new spending. High-dollar bailouts for struggling industries. A massive stimulus program, likely involving direct cash payments to Americans. An exploding federal deficit that will push the nation’s debt higher and higher.

All of it was once derided by conservatives in Texas and beyond.

All of it is now poised to happen at the urging of a Republican president – Donald Trump – and with the assistance of Republicans in Congress as policymakers in Washington scramble to marshal an overwhelming federal response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“As a fiscal conservative, I’ve long been concerned about deficits and debt,” Texas Sen. John Cornyn said. “But I don’t think that’s a discussion we should be having when we are in a national emergency. … We are already on a war footing, and we’ve got to beat this virus.”

The turnabout highlights one of the ways the COVID-19 outbreak has plumbed uncharted depths as it produces both a public health emergency and a debilitating economic slowdown.

Today’s GOP was shaped in a major way by the federal response to the 2008 financial crisis, when many conservative leaders, including Trump, rose in prominence as they lashed out at the massive spending used to bail out big banks and otherwise reboot a crashing economy.

But that aid may prove to be a pittance to what lawmakers are now lining up.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, said that he's "long been concerned about deficits and debt." But, he said, "I don’t think that’s a discussion we should be having when we are in a national emergency. " (Jacquelyn Martin / The Associated Press)

Republican leaders are quick to point out that this crisis features meaningful differences from the one more than a decade ago, including the fact that a sweeping array of industries – and their workers – are now suffering catastrophic losses due to no fault of their own.

GOP lawmakers, like in the past, are also being assisted in the rush to spend money by Democrats who have sometimes upped the ante by proposing even bigger relief packages.

Even many budget experts who typically criticize significant government spending without a plan of how to pay for it tend to agree that immense, complicated and almost unprecedented times like these are one of the few moments when it’s acceptable to run up a big bill.

Still, the current necessity spending further spotlights Washington’s refusal to address the federal deficit and debt when times were flush.

The nation’s debt now totals more than $23 trillion. Annual federal deficits now routinely top $1 trillion, fueled in part by increased spending and large-scale tax cuts implemented in the first two years of the Trump presidency, when the GOP controlled the House and the Senate.

Austin Rep. Chip Roy, a freshman Republican, shared this week on Twitter a message from another Texas conservative lamenting that “if only we had responsibly managed our budgets throughout the recovery.” The congressman then added one word of commentary.

“Correct,” Roy wrote.

Washington policymakers are currently rolling out a multitiered coronavirus response, one that keeps escalating along with the scope of the pandemic.

There was the $8.3 billion designed, in part, to help states and cities respond. There was Trump’s emergency declaration, which opened up billions of dollars in disaster relief funding. There was a $100 billion relief bill passed this week to bolster paid sick leave and other offerings.

Next up is the White House’s big ask: an economic stimulus valued at more than $1 trillion.

Trump wants a centerpiece to be direct cash payments to most all Americans to help those out of work and to inject additional money into an economy that’s come to a standstill. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has suggested that it should be $1,000 per adult and $500 per child.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, is proposing something similar.

He released a plan on Thursday that would give $1,200 per adult and $500 per child. But the direct aid would start phasing out for those who earn more than $75,000 a year, and it would be less for lower-income Americans who have no tax liability.

The checks are just one component, too.

Airlines, restaurants, hotels and just about every other business sector out there – even casinos – are imploring the federal government to unleash hundreds of billions of dollars in assistance. Trump and McConnell have indicated a desire to help many of them, especially through low-interest loans.

All of it is running up an eye-popping tab. And that may not be the worst thing, budget experts said, so long as the spending is deployed in a strategic, quick and effective manner.

“If there were ever a time for deficit spending, this is the time,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “In this moment, we should not be constrained whatsoever by the deficit. We should be constrained by stupid policies.”

The math nevertheless looms large.

Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Lubbock, said he would prefer to provide aid through “programs where we can get paid back and mitigate the cost to taxpayers long term.” But he also noted that a sustained recession could “cost a whole lot more than what we would spend up front.”

“We’re probably going to take some extraordinary measures to prevent longer-term … economic harm,” he conceded this week in an interview with Chad Hasty, a West Texas talk radio host.

Republicans and Democrats have, over the years, made fiscal responsibility something of a priority, in their politics and policies. Both parties, over the years, have also failed to stick to those constraints in any real or consistent way.

But the issue is a particular touchstone for the GOP, especially in the wake of the federal response to the 2008 financial crisis.

Under President George W. Bush, a Republican, Congress passed a contentious $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. Then under President Barack Obama, a Democrat, Congress pushed through an $800 billion stimulus package to recharge the economy.

Many Texas Republicans in Congress voted against the first measure. All of them voted against the second.

The tea party soon after emerged as a powerful conservative force, railing against entitlement programs and other spending as the cause of ballooning deficits. But fervor for fiscal restraint faded over time, at least among lawmakers. The nation’s debt has continued to rise.

“In moments like these, we realize what real government spending should look like,” said Bunni Pounds, who was a longtime consultant to former Dallas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a GOP fiscal hawk. She bemoaned “all this wasteful spending that we’ve been doing for years and years.”

The rising deficits have actually increased even more since Trump took office, in part due to the $1.5 trillion tax cut passed in late 2017 with only Republican support.

“This is a terrible reminder of why it’s so reckless to deficit spend – and we did in basically an unprecedented way over the last expansion – when times are good,” said MacGuineas, the budget expert. “We should’ve been getting our fiscal situation under control.”

Former Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, said the big question for lawmakers is "Is this an equivalent crisis like Pearl Harbor?."

So what happens now as the coronavirus response ensures that the federal deficit and debt will increase even more?

Former Arlington Rep. Joe Barton, a Republican who lists the biggest regret of his career as the inability to rein in the federal debt, acknowledged that lawmakers are in a tough spot, especially because “there’s no absolute answer as to how bad” the outbreak is going to be.

He looked back to Pearl Harbor, which caused the government to spend whatever it took during World War II because “it was total war and democracy’s future was at stake,” he said.

“Is this an equivalent crisis like Pearl Harbor? If you think it really is, then all these big spending programs we’re about to pass are probably justified,” he said.

But Barton said he’s not in that camp, though he said the ongoing pandemic is still extremely serious. He said if he were still in office, he “would probably be one of the minority who votes against the larger, grander spending programs with no way to ever pay it back.”

Opposition in Congress – over deficits or anything else – may ultimately depend on the particulars.

A handful of Texas Republicans, including Roy, objected to the $100 billion relief package signed into law this week, earning them scorn from Democrats and others. Their objections were partly over the process. In some cases, they also cited the measure’s size and scope.

Congress is still haggling over the details of the direct cash payments, especially as Cornyn and some other Republicans have expressed discomfort about sending checks to Americans who are still gainfully employed and those who are otherwise wealthy.

Corporate bailouts are another lightning rod amid reports that air carriers and others have invested heavily in recent years in stock buybacks. Democrats have demanded that any aid be directed first toward companies’ workers. Some Republicans are also leery.

“We shouldn’t pass bailouts for special interests or lobbyists,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz wrote in a recent Houston Chronicle op-ed.

But even though some conservative groups are urging restraint, there’s also an acknowledgement that these are different times.

Cornyn noted this week that the 2008 crisis came after Wall Street “used these risky investment vehicles and subprime mortgages and the like.” So the federal aid in that case “clearly … was helping the people who caused the problem in the first place,” he said.

“In this instance, the airline industry, the hospitality industry and other sectors that are important to our economy overall, they didn’t cause this problem,” he said in an interview with a San Antonio talk radio show. “But we have a problem we need to solve.”