OK I got it. I'd agree with your position on the Republicans, and I'd actually go as far as to say that probably more Democrats than Republicans are ideologically committed to deficit reduction based on a belief that its "the right thing to do", but I'm sticking to leaning towards most of Congress being in the more cynical camp.
But assuming that you're right and I'm wrong (a possibility I don't dismiss) that actually brings something else up for me. This may seem unrelated/out-of-left-field, but stick with me here... Trump just mouth-farted that he's worried that Russia will hack the next election to help Democrats. I initially just dismissed this out of hand as his usual verbal diarrhea, but today I was thinking about Putin's endgame and how it would best be served. I mean the Democrats are already struggling with a crisis of confidence in the electoral/political system, especially given the shadow of Russian meddling, right? And that, in part is supposed to be one of Putin's main goals. So wouldn't a bunch of Democratic successes do the same thing to the Conservative voters? If they view the election as the illegitimate result of Russian meddling, wouldn't that possibly escalate the precarious nature of the situation? I mean you have liberals and Democrats (you and me included) grumbling that the Democrats need to get more cut-throat, more cynical and start playing the same dirty games as the Republicans, right? So what happens when the Republicans/conservative start howling that "the liberals are playing dirty we need to play dirty too!"?
Anyway, to bring this around back to the point. If you're right, and the Democrats have mostly been being genuine about the deficit, while the Republicans have been the ones playing cynical... then what happens if the Democrats actually become as wholesale cynical as the Republicans? Does that, in your view, actually improve the monetary policy? Cause we both seem to think it might improve the political situation.