Tax Reform... PLEASE?

Since the 2010 Republican take-over of Congress, the major debate has been focused on the astronomically high debt this nation is accruing.  This past Thursday, the House Speaker John Boehner pointed out that the reform is under discussion but tax hikes are out of the question for the GOP.  This has been a continuous standstill in congress; who to tax, how high, how low, etc.  There have been several imminent government shut-downs that have been narrowly avoided by last-minute legislation that puts off the inevitable awhile longer.  How long can we survive on this?  This nation MUST get out of the deep hole of deep that it is currently standing in.  Today the highest tax bracket pays 35% in taxes while the lowest pays 15% however at the beginning of Reagan's presidency, the tax rate was 50% for the highest tax rates.  There has been discussions and pushes for raising the tax rate to similar percentages on those who make $250,000 (families) and $200,000 (individuals) or higher to relieve the over debt burden the government has gotten themselves into.  Although it seems like a quick fix, a better answer would be to lessen the spending in areas that are not dire within the government.  There are programs in place that take an immense amount of funding with little to no return and these programs need to either be reformed to require less money or eliminated all together.  Some of the programs that are not necessary as they are now would be NASA, Social Security (which needs to be reformed), the Food and Drug Administration (also needs to be reformed), and all cloning research (because it is NOT necessary).  These are just some ideas that would take a very long time to change or eliminate but they would save billions for the future which is where we need to look to in order to prepare now.