Politicians have learned how to buy votes with tax payer money. The incumbent can justify using Air Force One for campaign fund raisers. Universal health care is a bribe for votes. The practice of entitlement is a degenerative spiral.
Departments, agencies, and programs should have “sunset” clauses. Once started, i.e. the EPA or Homeland Security, do nothing more that grow in their cost and self importance. They, like lawyers on billable hours, would perpetuate or invent problems to continue and grow.

Accounting practices at the federal level would never be tolerated in the private sector. The IRS and the Justice Department should be greatly separated from the influence of the executive branch. Congressional “watchdog” committees are corruptable in their subjectivity to political pressures. The system of checks and balances is broken at the executive/justice level.
Term limits would end the perpetual need to campaign and influence the public about partisan politics. What is right for the country can be coupled with historical legacy much easier than the next election cycle.
Federal sales taxes and VAT can multiply hidden taxes in cost of goods. The problem is spending not revenue.