This excerpt originally appeared in The Daily Caller on July 9, 2012.

Veronique de Rugy, a research fellow at the Mercatus Center, analyzed the spending of eurozone countries from 2000 to 2011. She found that countries widely cited as practicing austerity — including Spain, France, the United Kingdom and Greece — had not significantly cut spending. According to de Rugy’s analysis, “austerity” is more about tax increases than spending cuts. Countries promising both have often increased taxes without decreasing spending, she found.