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You are dancing around one key question.
In Europe, tax dollars pay for school. In the US, the citizens have not agreed to have tax dollars fully pay for colleges.
This is the fundamental issue. 
Until people in the US want to fund colleges with tax dollars, you will see this. Given the tax rates are lower in the US, it explains why colleges charge.
What is more, the data in the US shows it does pay to invest in a college degree with typically about a million dollars more earned in the working career for having a degree. 
If you want to talk college affordability or budgets, you really have to look apples to apples.
It is just not possible to compare UCLA's budget to a European university. Simply put, UCLA is likely paying for things that the European university does not. Healthcare, public transit, and public safety all come to mind. Then you have the Athletics program which distorts this. It is a net positive for UCLA but appears as massive spending. You have the different costs for staff. What does a Professor cost in Germany vs the USA.  
Unless you begin controlling these variables, you aren't making a fair or even useful comparison.
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