It’s a good question. The problem is primarily articulating a mechanism for limiting federal government power.
Here are some possibilities :
1. Return to the 1974 Budget control act and end the zero line budgeting process that guarnatees automatic program funding increases.
2. Some of the Levin liberty amendments on taxation, spending and such
3. Win the House and the Senate for Republicans. Not nearly enough is made of how Republican control of all of Congress is the last time the nation ran a surplus. I know some will quibble about brief bouts of republican control under Bush but switches made that largely inoperable compared to the House sweep of 94 and asending Republican control of the Senate in the late 1990s. A Republican senate would change the federal government in a big way.
4. Adopt budget models found in states with surpluses such as Texas. This would include legislator limits on talking to parties while legislation is pending.
5. Adopt an energy policy mirrored after other nation and state policies that produce growth and revenue. Offer a relatively deregulated view of fracking in exchange for massive treasury infusions gained by becoming a fossil fuel super state that dwarfs Saudi Arabia. Fracking makes that more than possible if a federal policy could usurp local enviro radicals. Moreover, the policy could boost US GDP growth rates above 4% which would almost instantly destroy the deficit.
Essentially a federal policy of drill baby drill. Realize that all of the current boom is limited to private lands. Opening federal holdings would be the death knell of OPEC and the beginning of a more than ONE TRILLION DOLLAR annual industry in the United States.
6. Creative federalism. Look at Republican states and derive federal policies that mirror their legislative and fiscal policies. Spin out block grants of entrenched federal programs to the states.
I like a lot of those ideas. I also believe that we’d make headway advocating de-federalization of drug programs returning to the pre 1971 war on drugs model. We don’t have to get into the legalization argument but can be supporting an approach I think a majority of Americans could embrace. I think this could be done also with many social programs starting with many smaller ones. Empower states and empower people. When the federal government shuts down you shouldn’t have your state parks shutting down. Why not de-federalize those? We have to think the way the average person thinks. Too often GOP targets ideas to the wonks. We need to appeal to basic instincts of individualism.