When acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney tore into Republicans for hypocritically voting to increase spending for the past three years after railing against high deficits during the Obama years, he was simply echoing a sentiment deeply held for years by the grassroots. Citing the “extremely disturbing” $1 trillion deficit, Mulvaney hit the nail on the head.

In his pointed attack against congressional Republicans, Mulvaney correctly observed that “the worst thing in the whole world is deficits when Barack Obama was the president.” Yet as soon as President Trump, who has expressed openness to spending cuts, became president, the party became “a lot less interested” in deficit reduction.