Paul Teller is the Executive Director of Advancing American Freedom. He previously worked for the Republican Study Committee, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and the Trump Administration.
The following has been edited for context and clarity.
Federal Newswire:
Talk about your experience going and getting your PhD in political science in 1999.
Paul Teller:
I was at an American university PoliSci PhD program. And I realized actually pretty quick that what they were designing there in terms of their students wasn't who I wanted to be. They were very much designing insular academic types that publish in academic journals and don't really affect the real world, so that wasn't for me. Even though I finished, I kept doing what I was doing, I started a second-tier simultaneous track to do conservative movement stuff, and that's where I became a movement guy.
Federal Newswire:
What you're saying is, in your PhD program, it was geared towards creating more academics?
Paul Teller:
Well, no question. In fact, I used to complain that here we are practically a stone's throw from the White House, the Capital, we never met with congressmen or staff or the President and his or her staff, depending on who it was. It was looked down upon. It literally was, "We don't do that at grad school, that's undergrad you can go meet people in the real world. Grad school we do theory, and statistics and methods, and things like that.
Federal Newswire:
Were you working on the Hill when you were getting your PhD or did you take a break?
Paul Teller:
The PhD was before the Hill. In fact, I liked going to the Hill because we were letting this caged horse out of the barn. I spent all my grad school program studying Congress but not interacting.
So the stuff I was doing simultaneously was College Republican National Committee- The National Center for Public Policy Research, I was there. Washington Times.
I don't know if you remember, I was in Washington writing and selling political advertising. So that was simultaneous with the PhD.
Federal Newswire:
How has the Republican Conference changed in terms of sort of the relationships between people and how things are done? Has it changed?
Paul Teller:
It definitely changed. I'm old enough to be able to talk two decades ago when it was okay to have friendships across the aisle. Now, almost unheard of. Or if it happens, it's got to be under the cover of darkness at night.
In fact, my current boss, Mike Pence, very much prided himself on being able to take conservative issues and finding a Democrat co-sponsor, co-lead. We did that with Al Wynn of Maryland if you remember him on some very controversial campaign issues even.
Federal Newswire:
There are no Blue Dog Democrats anymore.
Paul Teller:
Exactly right. And it seems like, especially on the other side, they get punished if they work with us, right? I mean, especially someone tied to Donald Trump, oh my gosh. There's no room for any Democrat to collaborate with us anymore.
Federal Newswire:
Was it frustrating while at the White House to not be able to engage with Democrats to advance policies?
Paul Teller:
Yes. No question, no question. I mean, indeed frustrating. I was liaisoning in the legislative affairs shop to the most conservative members of the House and Senate, but we did also each get some Democrats, we wanted to cover everybody. So I had some of the most liberal Democrat senators in my bailiwick and I did what I could. Reached out, invited them to lunch at the White House. And we did, some would come. The Chief of Staff of really liberal senators. But so hard to work together because again, just toxic for them to really touch in a public way anything related to Donald Trump.
Federal Newswire:
What was the transition coming down off the Hill into the White House?
Paul Teller:
Oh, just fascinating. And again, that's maybe where being a student of politics came in. Then you could step back and say, "Wow, to see the legislative branch from the perch of the executive branch was fascinating." Not always positive fascinating. But I think one thing that's just hugely different is when you're working in the executive branch you've got one principle. It all goes up to the president no matter where you're working in the White House and the administration. Congress it's 435 on the House side, 100 on the Senate side. Small businesses basically all trying to somehow collaborate and cooperate. Just the controlled chaos in the Hill is amazing, especially when you see it from 10,000 feet.
Federal Newswire:
You’ve said that when you were at the White House you encountered entrenched bureaucracy.
Paul Teller:
What was harder was someone who was coming across as polite, and helpful, and on the team but then would slow walk a project. "Oh, you wanted that also, I'll get it to you next week." Then it's next week. "Oh, you needed three things, I'll give you two things." The slow walk was the drip, drip, drip, kill sometimes of a lot of projects.
Federal Newswire:
What are some of your proudest moments while working on the Hill?
Paul Teller:
And I'm blessed with a lot of those moments.
Because the whole movement got behind it was the Cut, Cap, and Balance fund.
In 2011, it started the Tea Party congress. And we basically just said, "We are not going to raise the federal debt ceiling unless we get immediate cuts." I think it was $100 billion in the first year, spending caps going forward, and a balanced budget amendment sent to the states. It wound up being a pretty good success in the end because we did get some spending cuts.
Federal Newswire:
How does regulation fit into all of this.
Paul Teller:
We see deregulation as a critical element of freedom. That's where I think Joe America most intersects with an oppressive government is with someone saying, "I'm enforcing this regulation either via paper or electronic something." Or showing up at your farm at your ranch and saying, "You've got a wetland here and we're going to do something about it," that kind of thing. Unfortunately, I think too many conservatives focus exclusively on legislation, and not that we shouldn't focus on that, but if you're ignoring regulation I think you're missing a really critical element of freedom.
Let's face it, there will be certain things where maybe the congressmen have not only no expertise themselves but maybe have no immediate access to the expertise because what they're legislating on is going to happen down the road and so something has to happen. I get that. But I think nine times out of 10 they have access to the same information, experts, whatever, that they could make those decisions, put it in the legislation.
Federal Newswire:
What was happening internally at the White House. There was a real emphasis on saying, "Hey, we said this during the campaign, we actually have to do this."
Paul Teller:
It wasn't even just conversation around the White House. There was literally a large whiteboard in the West Wing right near the chief of staff's office. Down the left side of the whiteboard, all the promises made during the campaign, and then a grid of what stage in the process each promise was.
There's no question we did try and hopefully did a half-decent job. I think some of it might just be, it is just so excruciatingly busy because of the size of the administrative state you never have time to stop and turn around and say, "What did we do today? Let's pause, take a breath, and sell it." It's like nope, we're on to the next fight, the next two fights.
Federal Newswire:
What are you up to in your current role at Advancing American Freedom?
Paul Teller:
We're proud of this Freedom Agenda that we developed. Literally a comprehensive soup-to-nuts roadmap of freedom. Well, two main things we're proud of besides the content and the substance, of course. We developed this agenda in a crowdsourced way.
In other words, we went to the conservative movement explicitly and asked for input, and also, indirectly. In other words, me just being around the movement and others and listening, and learning, and picking up issues and ideas. Very proud of that. But second, we didn't just say, "Here's a laundry list of things we should do and it's all federal legislation." We said, "You know what? What is freedom? What does it mean? What's the background of it? What does a free society look like? Oh, and, by the way, here are some things that get you to those conditions of freedom. Some might be federal legislation, state legislation, cultural changes, personal things you could even do. Family things."
Federal Newswire:
It's important to have those sort of mission statements out there and talk about the why, right?
Paul Teller:
A lot of Republicans, Conservatives, will say, "We've got to cut regulation" but they never explain why. What's the point of that? Is it just for the heck of it? Is it you want fewer pages to print? No, you want to give people more ability to make their own choices with more of their own resources without fear of mama government.
Federal Newswire:
We're now at regulatory costs that are over $3 trillion a year.
If we stay on this we'll be at six to seven trillion by 2030. What does that mean for America?
Paul Teller:
It seems not even just unsustainable, the economic- it seems unconscionable.
This is not why a free society builds a government, to then take things out the people's pockets so they can make again, fewer of their own choices and pursue their own happiness.
Federal Newswire:
What is the very first thing that President ought to do their very first day in office?
Paul Teller:
The way that the Biden-Harris administration went in and undid so many of the key executive orders for freedom, the freedom-based executive orders that Trump-Pence did, I would do the same thing. You undo those Biden-Harris things that reduced freedom, that removed choice across a variety of issue areas. You start with that and build from there.
Federal Newswire:
And then you have to go and you have to make sure that those things can get codified up on Capitol Hill.
Paul Teller:
Well, and that's the thing too and that would be another fight is to start somehow culturally convincing Congress to defund the things they say they hate.
Federal Newswire:
How do we bridge that gap and come back to some kind of an understanding of who we are as a people in America?
Paul Teller:
What happens with that is then you don't look at your fellow man as someone worthy of defending, praising, collaborating with. Things along those lines. It's not just "Oh, it'd be nice if my neighbor put out a flag too." it has to do with the glue of society.
Also, if you don't share common goals about the country; how it's founded, where we're going as a country, how should you be expected to make sure common decisions through your elected representatives or even just neighborhood to neighborhood.
Federal Newswire:
How do we get beyond the hot take? Just the idea of trolling. How do we raise the thoughtful governance back to where it ought to be the place of primacy? Or do we already do that and we just have to engage in these other things?
Paul Teller:
There are folks trying. A perfect example, Mike Pence, I mean, his temperament, disposition, his tone I think is something we should all emulate. Social media doesn't help. It doesn't incentivize thoughtful, loving exchanges of ideas.
So I think that's at least part of it.
