The deficit is $574 B and going down, though past 2014 it will probably go up again, and the debt is $17.6 T. Honestly republicans only care about debt when they have nothing else to blame Obama for, they never once cared about it 2001-2008, just ignore the doubling of the debt by Bush and blame it all on Obama.
In any case though, actual conservatives and libertarians who don't suck up to a political party really do care about it, and it is a big issue to them.
It does depend on the type of Republican. For instance, Tom Coburn ran against the deficit in his 2004 Senate campaign, as did groups like Citizens Against Government Waste.
The problem is that these people, while they do support great spending cuts, they oppose any revenue increases, making it tough to tackle a deficit.
