To what extent does a party-wide austerity consensus systematically change voters’ preference prioritizations? Recent literature shows that policy preferences are not static and unidimensional, but rather changeable and multidimensional. With a specific focus on spending and taxation preferences, I expect that these characteristics increasingly materialize under austerity. When there is a cross-party consensus that government deficit spending is not an option anymore, I expect, voters will accept this paradigm and change their priorities accordingly. Middle-income voters in particular, who I expect to favour high levels of spending and low levels of taxation, are under a balanced budget forced into choosing. Either they will align with the rich, prioritizing low taxation and willing to give up high spending or the align with lower income groups, prioritizing high spending and are willing to pay higher taxation for that. The paper combines three waves of ISSP data from 1996-2016 in combination with party manifesto data on parties’ policy position on austerity from the CMP to explore how austerity affects the trade-offs that middle-income voters face.