How about this:
Make Tax Day, 15 April, also Election Day.
It's also a national holiday.
Everything (except police, fire stations and hospitals, those folks will have to rotate) is closed by law. Everything.
Everyone goes to the polls in their county/township.
You go in and there's a long table with representatives from each taxing body there.
First you pay your Local Taxes, like Property, School District*, and any other local taxes.
Next station is to pay your State Income taxes. (if any).
Finally, you pay your Federal Income Tax. (This will have to be flat.)
You have to write a check (or money order, or credit card) for each one.
The balance.
In full.
There will be no withholding from paychecks. No escrowing property taxes with your mortgage payments.
No slight of hand bullshit.
Every last dime. Right then. Right now.
Once you've paid, then you are handed your ballot to go in and vote.
Now each level of .gov knows exactly what it has to spend for the upcoming fiscal year and cannot spend more then what it has taken in. They have from 15 April to 1 October to hash out what gets paid and what doesn't.
No borrowing, no bonds, no accounting tricks. You have X dollars. You can only spend X dollars.
Elected Reps: Have at it. And you have 4.5 months to figure it out.
Also, no borrowing, no projections. No "outyears". You want a new school/road/Navy Destroyer? It all gets paid for upfront. In full. That will sure control for "Cost Overruns", if the GC or one of the subcontractors has to eat the cost overrun, you know damn well, it'll get done right the first time.
I bet having a bunch of highly pissed off people going into the polls, would solve quite a few of this country's (along with several states and locales) problems. And keep them solved.
"But Dave", you say, "What about people who don't or won't go to the polls# on Tax/Election Day?'
Failure to show up and pay on Tax/Election Day and your taxes automatically double, and a warrant is issued for your arrest.
# - You don't have to vote, but you do have to pay all your taxes.
*- Did I mention vouchers? Good for any school you want to send your kid: public, private, parochial, or moonbat. You, as parents, choose. Liberals are Pro-choice, right?
