Deficits, tax cuts and the GOP

By Ezra Klein

This is the sort of comment that I think gets one dismissed as a hopeless partisan, but is also unambiguously true:

Nobody, and I mean nobody, in a position of influence within the GOP cares about deficits when tax cuts for the affluent are on the line. Deficit hawkery is just a stick with which to beat down social programs.

That's Paul Krugman, and what's the argument that he's wrong? Or even that it applies to both parties?

Compare the GOP's approach to tax cuts with the Democratic Party's approach to health-care reform. Actually, you can even compare the GOP's approach to health-care reform with the Democratic Party's approach to health-care reform. Whatever you think of the Affordable Care Act, Democrats went to great pains to provide offsets, which is why Republicans could accuse them -- over and over again -- of cutting $500 billion from Medicare. When the GOP passed the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit, they made no cuts and created no new taxes and simply put the whole thing on the deficit.

So help me out, dear readers: What's the evidence that the GOP ever allows deficits to come between them and the policies they want to pass?