You can only believe that if you don't actually listen to them or pay attention to what they do. There's a reason Bob Dole acquired the reputation of "Tax Collector for the Welfare State", and for current events, look no further than the Republican Senators like John Thune who are salivating for an increase in the Federal gasoline tax, more tolerable now that prices have dropped. And why the Republican establishment's loathing of the "Tea Party" vastly exceeds that of the Democrats (.e.g ask the primaried Republicans who are now spending more time with their families, especially once powerful ones like Senator Lugar or #2 in the House Cantor).

You're confusing general propaganda against Republicans vs. what they, professional politicians, say, vs. what they actually DO. Believing either of the first two is unwise.

To end with some inconvenient facts, it wasn't Republicans who killed the Superconducting Supercollider, it was Republicans who funded the James Webb Space Telescope (started in a Republican Congress), and Reagan (and I think both Bushes) signed off on increases in the non-defense science budget. NIH funding is a good proxy for that, e.g. look here: http://officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/approp_hist.html