trueblue surely this ideology of the GOP is one that is routed in the very idea of the American Dream. The idea that anyone can be anything, can get rich, if they pull their socks up and work hard. Also the focus on individual responsibility and idealisation of the working man. This creates the narrative that if someone is poor than this is solely their fault, because they have not worked hard enough. Also that conversely if you are rich this is because you have worked hard and that you therefore deserve your money, why would you want to give it to someone who so clearly doesn't?
Add to this a dose of puritanism that suggests that everything is dictated by a god who has a plan and hands out just desserts. Suddenly not only are the poor workshy and lazy, but they are also quite possibly being punished for some unknown sin.
These ultra right wing Republicans simple despise the poor and the sick. They cannot even begin to fathom why anyone would want to help them. In fact they view helping the poor in any concerted fashion as going against god and everything America stands for.