NEW YORK (AP) — Republicans who have spent the past decade howling about the danger of ballooning deficits embraced the mammoth coronavirus rescue package approved by Congress this week, shrugging off past concerns about the nation's spending in the face of a public health crisis.

In many cases, the conservatives who backed the $2 trillion bill — the largest economic relief bill in U.S. history — were the very same who raged against the nearly $800 billion economic stimulus package backed by the Obama administration.

But facing the unprecedented threat of a global pandemic — and working under...