It's been like this for decades. "Small government" has only ever meant "I want spending on the things I like and not what you like'.

I like that the article pulled no punches: 'Gaetz is a self-promoting jackass' and 'Mike Johnson, on the other hand, comes straight out of the deepest swamps of fervent Christian fundamentalism'.

Republicans want to 1) exploit you and 2) control you. That's it. Pretending like it's been any different since the 1960s is idiocy.

Here’s my amount of surprise:

Small government when that gets them what they want, big government when it doesn't.

No shit.

They haven't been the party of small government since.. I don't even know. Not on my lifetime, despite always being told that by "fiscal conservative" Republican voters. They've been fed such a lie.

Always has been

(This isn’t a surprise)

You don't say?!

Of course they’d care - it’s a super effective smokescreen to push either more money into their pockets or fascism.