This idea is one of the things that carried him to victory on Election Day. So we thought we’d take this opportunity to do some thinking outside of the box ourselves. What would be a good disruptive government force? How can we save money for taxpayers and improve service for all Americans? Here are some fresh new ideas for Mr. Trump to make government work.

Take on entitlements…in a new way. This doesn’t mean gutting or changing the promises made through Medicare and Social Security. It means being honest about the future and how to meet the needs of the demographic wave crashing into these programs. Republicans and Democrats recognize that something has to be done. The President-elect is alone in saying “just say no.”  We hope the President-elect will build on his history of deal making to bring together both parties for a sober process that addresses the different but serious challenges of each program, and brings Members of Congress to a new, shared solution.

Tax reform. Just as Americans have a desire to have confidence in our entitlement programs, it is critical to the future of our democracy that they have confidence in the fairness of our system of taxation. Almost everyone in Washington agrees that that current tax system is overdue for reform. We hope Mr. Trump will bring the type of leadership provided by President Reagan and his administration to make tax reform happen back in 1986.  At that time, the administration’s proposals (Treasury I and Treasury II) were never enacted. They did, however, draw a road map that Congress and President Reagan followed on the way to enacting wholesale tax reform. And just as with entitlement reform, it is absolutely vital that these reforms be embraced and accepted by both parties.

Budget reform. The 1974 Budget Act is showing its age. There are ways to make the budget committee more impactful and relevant, mainly by giving the annual budget resolution more teeth, shifting to biennial budgeting, and increasing the stature and power of the committee itself. This would serve to remove some of the posturing and preening from both parties by making decisions have consequences.

Herbie Hoover. President Hoover retired as a young President and while having a controversial (at best) tenure as President, continued to serve the country after his time in office. He even conducted a review of government for two Presidents (Truman and Eisenhower) that made dozens of recommendations to improve efficiency and delivery of government services. If Mr. Trump is serious about reforming the whole government, he could start by forming a panel that looks at why so many programs appear on the GAO’s annual report on opportunities to reduce fragmentation, overlap and duplication, year after year.

Hard Defense Decisions. President-elect Trump recently raised questions about the staggering cost of the F-35 aircraft. He suggested buying more F/A-18 Super Hornets instead. For years we have been writing about the amount of money that could be saved by continuing to upgrade existing aircraft. Looking to the future of warfare, manned aircraft are on their way out and drones are on the ascendance. Does it make sense to spend a trillion dollars to buy and maintain the F-35 for the next forty years when the nature of warfare is changing at an astonishing pace? The Air Force doesn’t want the new President thinking about that because if there’s no need for manned fighter aircraft…there’s little need for an Air Force, except maybe in a diminished transport role.

Think Dyad or Monad, Rather than Triad.  Another trillion dollar plus misadventure about to be set in budgetary stone is updating all three legs of the nuclear triad: silo-based, air-launched and submarine-launched missiles. The President-elect should direct the Pentagon to look at the budget alternative of a deterrent made up of just the submarine warheads (most survivable). In an exercise run in the summer of 2016 by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Alternatives “Team Restraint” (which TCS served on) built a budget that would save $1 trillion in part by only having a “monad” deterrent.

More than anything, if Mr. Trump wants to disrupt business-as-usual, he should work to undermine the nation’s expectation that one party power will mean party-line votes and political posturing. Congress’s approval rating is at an all-time low. Millions of voters in both parties expressed a desire for change. Being a leader that serves and hears the whole country, while pushing for major reforms with buy-in from both parties, is how Mr. Trump can  Make America both Stronger Together and Great (Again).