Reducing fraud, graft, waste, redundancy needs to happen at the Federal and State levels, but also overall spending has to be reduced. Realistic changes to entitlements have to be enacted (for example, social security payments being based on modern longevity numbers which have changed since the 1960s).
On the subject of taxing the rich, there are two perspectives. The top 1% indeed pays most of the Federal Taxes but much of their wealth is never taxable. The way this works:
- individual invests in stocks, bonds, annuities or similar financial instruments
- those investments grow over time, increasing the net worth of the individual
- that increase as well as the wealth itself is not taxed unless those investments are sold
- but they never have to sell them – if they need money, they can just go to a bank and borrow money using those investments as collateral and pay interest rates that are far lower than the investment increases
So one way to further tax the rich is using a wealth tax (a flat rate on their net worth) or taxing capital gains even before they are “realized”.
Some boring but insightful reading:
https://manhattan.institute/article/the-limits-of-taxing-the-rich
https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/government-revenue