To achieve a surplus in the federal government budget, the most effective set of actions would be:
Increase tax rates for individual income and corporate income taxes. Decrease the number of employees as well as cuts in spending for social security and defense.
This option involves increasing revenue through higher tax rates while simultaneously reducing expenditures by cutting government employee numbers and reducing spending on major programs. Together, these actions are likely to result in a surplus by increasing income while decreasing outgoing expenses.