(CNN) If you knew anything about the Republican Party in the decade leading up to the 2016 presidential election, it was this: They thought government spending was WAY out of control and believed we need to get the country's deficit spending and resultant soaring debt under control.

John McCain spent the entirety of his 2008 presidential campaign talking about how out-of-control government spending posed the most serious threat to the well-being of his children and grandchildren. Paul Ryan's rise from little-known Wisconsin congressman to 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee was fueled by his policy prescriptions aimed at bringing down the deficit. Heck, even Jeb Bush, in the early days of his race for the 2016 nomination, criticized his own older brother for not bringing "budget discipline to Washington, D.C.!"

All of which makes this exchange between longtime conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh and a caller to his show on Tuesday all the more notable. Here it is:

CALLER: In 2019, there's gonna be a $1 trillion deficit. Trump doesn't really care about that. He's not really a fiscal conservative. We have to acknowledge that Trump has been cruelly used.

LIMBAUGH: Nobody is a fiscal conservative anymore. All this talk about concern for the deficit and the budget has been bogus for as long as it's been around.

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