1) Make significant and permanent decreases in the federal income tax rate. For those productive Americans who contribute to the system, this would put more disposable income in our pockets which, in turn, would ramp up demand for goods and services. By making them long run cuts, it allows for long-term planning of consumer durables (e.g., houses, cars, etc.) and more qualified buyers due to higher disposable income. If you're worried that the cuts would increase the deficit, look at the experience with the large tax cuts in the past (e.g., the Kennedy and Reagan tax cuts) and read about the Laffer Curve and compare it to past cuts in England and India.
2) Lower corporate tax rates. Cutting tax rates is NOT the same as tax incentives. Businesses will only hire more people if the demand for their product increases (hence, #1 above). If you let them keep more of what they do earn, they have the ability to hire more workers when demand warrants it. While Ireland's a little shaky right now (along with most of the EU), it's employment levels soared when they lowered their corporate tax rates. If we did that here given our resource base, we blow the Pacific Rim out of the water.
So, why aren't we doing this? Because politicians think the only way to maintain power is to give your money away to someone else. Come November I, for one, am going to try and tell them that approach really pisses me off...
All Gov'ts (Feds, States, County, city, etc), need to live within their means.
That means, spend no more (including debt repayment) than your receipts.
I know that sounds un-American as we just can't even do that at the family level - but it's got to be done, else we are screwed -short term, medium term and long term....