Progressive organizations and causes receive billions of dollars annually in taxpayer dollars. The tax dollars of conservatives and all Americans, in other words, are financing our political opponents and America’s demise.



Here’s a bullet list of initiatives that the establishment GOP — left to its own devices — would never try to accomplish. But they ought to be an integral part of the Trump administration’s agenda, as well as that of conservatives in 115th Congress.



Defund the Left



President Trump could save taxpayers billions of dollars by appointing one person and a team to weed out money going to leftist causes in appropriations legislation and through federal agency spending.



It is not just Planned Parenthood that should be defunded, but hundreds if not thousands of left-wing causes on the taxpayer dole. Here are some examples:



1. Prior to La Raza Senior Vice President for the Office of Research, Advocacy and Legislation Cecilia Muñoz joining the Obama administration, La Raza received $4.1 million in federal funds. When President Obama brought her aboard in 2009, he issued a special “ethics waiver” since it violated his lobbyist ban. In 2011, Judicial Watch reported that between 2009 and 2010, La Raza funding nearly tripled from $4.1 million to $11 million. Source: CapitolCityProject. National Council of La Raza received a total of $28,304,308 in taxpayer dollars from 2009 through 2016.



2. On average, Planned Parenthood receives approximately $500 million a year in federal taxpayer funds, as a GAO report indicated last year, plus many millions more from many states.



3. Refugee contractors: The federal government pays nine primary national contractors to resettle refugees and those granted political asylum. Federal payments data to these organizations are likely incomplete, because the contractors are often listed under more than one name or the name has been entered incorrectly, but at a minimum it is $611 million for 2015, the most recent year available. Some of the largest recipients include Catholic Charities, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, World Relief Corporation, Church World Service, and Domestic and Foreign Missionary Service of the Episcopal Church of the USA. Data from James Simpson’s, The Red Green Axis: Refugees, Immigration and the Agenda to Erase America.



4. End the distribution of civil penalty funds to left-wing organizations. The Justice Department announced a $5.1 billion settlement with Goldman Sachs in April 2016. In February Morgan Stanley agreed to a $3.2 billion settlement. Previous targets were Citigroup ($7 billion), J.P. Morgan Chase ($13 billion), and Bank of America, which in 2014 reached the largest civil settlement in American history at $16.65 billion. Smaller deals with other banks have also been announced. A substantial portion was directed by the Obama administration to private, nonprofit organizations drawn from a federally approved list. Some groups on the list — Catholic Charities, for instance — are relatively nonpolitical. Others — La Raza, the National Urban League, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and more — are anything but. (Source: Wall Street Journal)



5. Though not a typical issue associated with defunding the left, it is time to end crony socialism for big business. For example, under Donald Trump’s leadership Congress should refuse to re-authorize the Export-Import Bank, and end the big-business pork that has become the hallmark of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Also, it is time to repeal Dodd-Frank, which has been devastating for small and start-up businesses, drying up their sources of capital by putting hundreds of small and medium-sized banks out of business.



Re-establish the Constitution



Washington needs to start treating the Constitution for what it is – our fundamental and paramount law over, or governing, government – rather than a suggestion.



Not only does government frequently violate the Constitution, it regularly violates the laws it is supposed to implement and enforce. Good examples are the treatment of constitutional conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service, the creation of sanctuary cities allowing people to evade immigration laws, and abusing civil rights laws to punish Christians who practice and live out their religious beliefs through their privately owned businesses, in effect criminalizing Christianity, and removing intent of criminality called mens rea. Government violates the law that governs it all the time. In fact, government is the oldest, largest, and most pervasive lawbreaker in society, with no close second. This must end.



1. We can begin to restore accountability of government by eliminating most immunity for government officials and employees when their actions are particularly egregious, and making them subject to personal liability in civil suits for willful violations of the law in the conduct of their government employment. For flagrant contempt of the law, authorize punitive damages against miscreants in government jobs.



Government employees had such personal liability in the first ten decades or so of our republic, and could be sued by citizens. Postal officials even were subject to the death penalty for destroying mail with financial instruments in it. Restoring civil liability (not penalties as severe as the death penalty, of course) will help restore government accountability and the rule of law.



2. Eliminate judge-less warrants known as “administrative subpoenas” issued by government agencies. Administrative subpoenas lack probable cause and violate the separation of powers in the Fourth Amendment’s warrant provision. They are used to make the progressive administrative state more powerful, and liberty weaker. Mere bureaucrats, not judges, issue them, often targeting individuals and businesses that are critics of government. In an age when police can obtain judge-issued warrants from their patrol cars, there is no justification for bureaucrats to bypass the Fourth Amendment and unilaterally issue judgeless administrative subpoenas.



3. Enact the bill passed by the House of Representative in 2016 called the Separation of Powers Restoration Act, overturning what’s called the “Chevron doctrine” under which courts defer to administrative agency interpretation of law when the legality of regulations are challenged. Government bureaucrats deserve no preference or deference by the courts when construing the law in our constitutional republic.



4. Require all government employees and officials to read the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence before starting their jobs. Institute annual required continuing education and testing on the Constitution for anyone who receives a government paycheck. If immigrants must pass a test to become citizens, certainly government employees should pass a test about the Constitution to keep their jobs.



Direct-marketing pioneer Richard A. Viguerie has been fighting for conservative causes on the national level for over 55 years. His Manassas, Va.-based firm, American Target Advertising, has mailed over four billion letters in support of conservatives and their most cherished causes. A frequent commentator on Newsmax TV, Mr. Viguerie’s op-eds have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsday, USA Today, the Scripps-Howard newspapers, and many, many others. He is also the author of six books, including Takeover: The 100-year War for the Soul of the GOP and How Conservatives Can Finally Win It. As founder and chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, he continues the fight to advance the conservative cause.