1. Drastically cut spending. I'm talking pre-WW1 mentality as to what your government can do for you.
2. Broaden the tax base way out. Stop using taxes as a punishment/reward system, and start using them to pay for basic services only.
This is the simple solution to a very complex problem. All the ifs, buts, howevers are useless because once you go down that road, you end up back where we currently find ourselves.
The role of government is to set the rules and then enforce them on the broadest cross-section of the population as is feasible (the law of diminishing returns comes in here at a certain point). It isn't there to feed you, entertain you, or play to your whims and passions. It is a necessary evil to produce a functioning civil society.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness != getting shit handed to you. It means that the rules have been set up such that a meritocracy flourishes. It is meant to be an elitist system, which is the polar opposite of a socialist system.
Socialist states attract tit-suckers, Meritocracies attract the kind of people who are going to make the world a better place (likely unintentionally through their own selfish pursuits). I'd like to see our country get back to the latter even if it means less handouts and a harder period of time in the near future.