You’re not wrong, but most people don’t pay attention to what’s going on in conservative circles. The entire conservative project has to deal with the fact that their policies are fundamentally unpopular and would obviously hurt the vast majority of people. Therefore, they tiptoe around what they actually want. “We’re going to reduce taxes”, for example, only ends up reducing taxes for rich people, and often increases taxes on everyone else. But the statement in a vacuum doesn’t give that away.
Their big mistake this time is that they thought they could go full mask off and win easily.