How about Cold Turkey for 3 months? No paychecks to any government employee, no elected office holder, no military, no social security, no Medicare payments, no grant funding, no payments to government contractors, no payment of debt to bond holders, just stop all spending for 3 months. They don't even have to be consecutive months. Use the accumulated funds to make a massive paydown of the debt. Then back to normal. Will some people get crushed? Maybe, but the well-to-do will be fine and that's what counts.