Oh yeah, it's just that easy. You've got the whole problem solved in one paragraph!
You'd have to eliminate all unessential government programs, and replace social security and medicare with government run lower cost options.
Have fun getting anyone to agree on what an "unessential" government program is. Replace Social Security? Tried that. The Democrats screamed "you want old people to die, don't you?" and shot it down. Replace Medicare with a government-run option? Welcome to Obamacare, which nobody likes and has doctors and nurses running for the exits, straining an already understaffed healthcare system.
For example you could offer free government housing, but make the housing all double occupancy studio apartments.
First, let's get past this "free" thing you speak of. Nothing is "free" in this world. If you're getting something without paying for it, it means someone *else* paid for it. Those people are known as "taxpayers" and they're damned sick of providing "free" food, clothing, housing, and medical care for people who seem to enjoy living off the backs of others who actually work for a living.
And you could offer free health care, but only provide low cost proven procedures, have doctors do only work that can't be done by anyone else, and give out only generic medications.
Won't work. "Low cost proven procedures" don't include the latest, most-expensive, life-saving medical procedures, therefore somebody who could have been saved by them will eventually die on this "budget plan" you're advocating. The relatives of this person will be paraded in front of Congress as an example of a heartless system that lets poor people die, Congress will allocate more and more money to The System, and we'll have a system that's every bit as expensive as we have now only with government ineptness, bureaucracy, and inefficiency as an added bonus.
Hell, you could even throw in free food, as long as it's all long shelf-life products that are completely healthy.
Sure, because we all know that "long shelf-life products" never contain tons of additives and preservatives which *allow* them to be long shelf-life in the first place, right? Healthy stuff indeed. Flavored with unicorn tears, I hear.
Do you see what I'm doing? I'm making sure the stuff I'm giving away isn't as good as the stuff people could buy for themselves.
Which leads to the "poor" people on your program to bitch and whine and moan that the rich are getting all the good stuff while they're left with the dregs. And these "poor" people vote. Which guarantees some whore of a politician will come along and promise to "spread the wealth around" in the name of fairness and give these whiners more...and more...and more...until you end up with Greece.
Look, I know you mean well. Idealists always do. The problem is the real world bears absolutely no resemblance to what you'd like it to be. Give people free shit and they complain that it's not *enough* free shit. Give them nicer shit and they *still* complain that other people have nicer shit than them. And if you *give* it to them, they have no concept of earning it, no idea of the value of work. They just feel entitled. And they tend to riot if you don't keep feeding their addiction despite the fact that it will eventually destroy the economy, the country, and everything around them.