I have come to the conclusion that it is actually extremely difficult to ever actually successfully reduce spending.
The main issue for me is dissent. Last year we went through a "crisis" as the government wanted to increase tuition. What happened was 100 nights of protests. IIRC, the cost of policing the protests overshadowed any actual revenue increases that would have taken effect. Same thing in Europe. How do you want to successfully implement austerity when you're paying for 10X the normal police presence to keep the country from burning to the ground.