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Whatever You’re Doing, Do It Well: A Q&A with Senior Policy Advisor Tom Church

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Kruttika Gopal
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  |  Updated on 
May 3, 2021

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Church shared his advice for students and spoke about his career in our exclusive Q&A

Senior Policy Advisor Tom Church shared his advice for students and spoke about his career in this exclusive Q&A for the FtF Blog.

Tom Church, Senior Policy Advisor at Free the Facts, is a well-known figure across our events and programming. As a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, he has a breadth of experience studying health care policy, income inequality, and entitlement reform that he has contributed to Free the Facts. We sat down with Tom Church to learn more about his background, career, and advice for students.

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Q: Where are you from? What were your favorite things to do growing up?

A: I'm from Midland, Michigan, a nice small town about an hour and a half north of Detroit. In Michigan in the wintertime, you picked hockey or skiing, and I picked skiing. And it’ll come as no surprise that I was a big book nerd.

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Q: Where did you go to school?

A: I went to the University of Michigan for my undergraduate degree, where I studied math and political science. Then I went to Pepperdine University for my master's degree in public policy.

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Q: What activities did you participate in when you were in college?

A: I wrote for a few years for the Michigan Review, which is a journal on campus. I was also a part of a program called Michigan in Washington during my freshman year, which sent students to D.C. for a semester where we interned and took classes at night. Interning in D.C. when you were expected to just be in college was really fun.

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Q: How did you become interested in studying income inequality, health care policy, and entitlement reform?

A: At first, it was the decision to study public policy. I was always interested in finance and numbers, and then in politics and policy. When Wall Street blew up while I was finishing my college degree, it gave me the extra push to do policy instead of finance, so I went ahead and did my master’s in public policy. A lot of my interest comes down to just following data and testing hypotheses.

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Q: Did you have a different career plan for yourself when you were a college student?

A: After serving as a congressional page in D.C. as a junior in high school, I was pretty set on public policy. In college, I said, “well, I gotta do something else”—and realized, “wow, I like math!” When you're studying something you really think is interesting, you realize you want to keep doing it.

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Q: What’s your favorite college memory?

A: Michigan's a great school academically but man, is it fun to go to football and basketball and hockey games—and everything else. Walking to the football stadium half a dozen times every season with 100,000 fans together with all your friends felt magical every single time. I really enjoyed that.

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Q: What was your career path leading up to the Hoover Institution?

A: I got very lucky because I went to grad school to study policy, and part of Pepperdine’s program is that you intern full time for the summer. I applied and got taken up at the Hoover Institution, which I am really grateful for. I went up there for the summer and loved it, and they offered me a full time job following. It was a pretty easy decision because I wanted to stay in California and it was a great opportunity.

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Q: What do you enjoy most about your work?

A: I enjoy the ubers [sic] of large think tanks and the breadth of the fellows that are there. Everyone's an expert in their field, and I have access to approachable people studying every issue with real-world experience—it's like a kid in a candy shop. The project I work on right now is called PolicyEd, where we try to explain research to the public. It's really enjoyable to marry policy, academic rigor, and education.

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Q: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

A: Pre-COVID, my favorite thing to do is take advantage of California. We're a few hours from the mountains to ski, less than an hour from the beach to enjoy the summertime, and less than an hour from a city which has great concerts and terrific food and restaurants. I enjoy taking advantage of what's available here in the Bay Area.

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Q: How did you get involved with Free the Facts?

A: Lanhee Chen, the chairman of our Policy Advisory Board, is also a research fellow at Hoover, where we got to know each other. He was approached by our fearless leader Lindsay Hayes, who was putting together a project on how much the government was spending and what we should be doing about that. He said, “I know a guy who runs a lot of numbers and works on this.” We've been working on it ever since. What I love about Free the Facts is talking to students who may disagree with each other politically and encouraging them to work together to create bipartisan, or really nonpartisan, solutions.

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Q: What is your most memorable Free the Facts policy tour experience?

A: On one of the tours, we went to the University of Michigan and then right after, we went down to Ohio State, its rival school. At Michigan, when I was introduced as a graduate of Michigan, I got applause. When we went to the next event in Ohio, Lindsey introduced me as a proud graduate of the University of Michigan and in a room of 100 people, I got booed! It was hilarious because as Lindsay was introducing me, I went, ‘no no no!’ It ended up being a nice self-deprecating way to start the talk with ‘I understand, but let's talk about this instead.’

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Q: Do you have any advice for students who are interested in fiscal policy or public policy as a whole?

A: You hear this all the time but I didn't appreciate it until later—whatever you're doing, do it well, because it leads to the next thing. People like to joke all the time that no one’s going to care about your GPA when you’re 40, but the truth is that people care about your GPA or whatever research you’re doing when you're applying to grad school or trying to get a job. So, whatever you're working on, even if you think it might not matter in the future, it matters for what’s next. If you do it really well, people will notice and it will lead to your next thing.

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The federal budget is the itemized plan for public expenditures of the federal government. This includes mandatory and discretionary spending. The budget is compiled annually and is named after the proceeding fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. If a budget is not agreed upon by the start of the fiscal year, a government shutdown will be triggered unless Congress passes a continuing resoultion, which provides funding at existing levels for a period of time to allow for negotiations to continue.
Federal Budget
This ratio compares the federal government debt of a country to the country's gross domestic product (GDP), in other words, what it owes to what it produces. Expressed as a percentage, the higher the debt-to-GDP ratio of a country the more likely it is that a country will face economic challenges due to its debt.
Debt-to-GDP Ratio
The federal debt is the cumulative amount the federal government owes to bondholders, both foreign and domestic. This represents the total, historical difference between federal spending and revenue.
National Debt
The federal budget deficit is the annual difference between the federal government’s revenue and how much it spends.
Budget Deficit
GDP is the total monetary value of consumer goods and services within a country's economy. This calculation considers consumer spending, government spending, private domestic investment, and a country's imports and exports.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The U.S. federal government's sole source of income is tax revenue, which is primarily composed of individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, and payroll taxes. Other sources of tax revenue include excise taxes and estate taxes.
Tax Revenue
These bills provide and place limits on an agency's budget authority, the ability to spend government funds. There are 12 annual appropriations bills and occasional supplementary appropriations bills that obligate federal funds for specific purposes.
Appropriations Bills
Authorizing legislation is a prerequisite for Congress to appropriate budget authority, or the ability to spend government funds for various programs. Authorization laws also act as guidance on the appropriate level of funding to be set aside for specific programs. This might be in setting a limit, or it may simply authorize “such sums as may be necessary.”
Budget Authorizations
A congressional budget resolution establishes topline spending and deficit limits for the following fiscal year. Although not law, because it's not signed by the president, budget resolutions are enforceale using the rules of either chamber. By law, a budget resolution is to pass the House and Senate by April 15 of each year, which rarely happens.
Budget Resolution
The president's budget request kicks off the annual budget process and provides a breakdown of how the president would like Congress to enact tax and spending laws. This request is due on the first Monday in Feburary but is normally provided late.
Budget Request
Discretionary spending is the portion of the federal budget that Congress debates every year. There are 12 components of discretionary spending, and these are usually broken down into defense and non-defense spending.
Discretionary Spending
The programs that Congress is required to fund make up mandatory spending. This includes programs like Social Security, Medicare, and interest payments on the debt.
Mandatory Spending
What you pay for your own medical care.
Out-of-pocket Payments
Within the context of the Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund, insolvency means that Medicare is unable to cover the full cost of Part A (hospital care) benefits.
HI Trust Fund Involvency
Chronic conditions are diseases and conditions that usually last for 3 months or longer, such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and cancer.
Chronic Diseases
The percentage of the costs of a healthcare service that you pay (e.g., 20%). Coinsurance kicks in after you've paid your deductible.
Coinsurance
The amount you pay for healthcare services before your insurance begins to cover expenses.
Deductibles
Examples include disabilities that qualify the individual for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits (i.e., unable to engage in “substantial gainful activity” because of a medically-determined physical or mental impairment expected to last at least 12 months or until death), end-stage renal disease (ESRD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Long-term Disabilities
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Worker-to-Beneficiary Ratio
As a covered worker, you pay Social Security taxes up to the taxable maximum. In 2024, that amount is $168,600. Since Social Security was never meant to function as a retirement program, wages subject to taxation were capped so that high-income individuals did not end up with Social Security payments many times what would be necessary to prevent poverty in old age.
Taxable Maximum
As the spouse of a Social Security recipient, you are entitled to additional benefits of up to one-half of their full benefits. You do not have to have a work history to receive this payment. If you have worked and are owed Social Security benefits, you get the maximum of what you are owed or your calculated spousal benefit.
Spousal Benefit
All funds in the OASDI trust funds are invested in "special issue securities" specifically created for Social Security. In effect, they are IOUs that the government pays to itself.
Special Issue Securities
In the context of Social Security, the "replacement rate" or "replacement ratio" is the percent of pre-retirement earnings that Social Security recipients can expect to receive. Median-income retirees typically expect around a mid-thirty percent replacement rate, low-income retirees get closer to fifty percent, and high-income retirees typically receive a mid-twenty percent replacement rate.
Replacement Rate
Every covered worker pays a payroll tax that includes a combined 12.4% up to the taxable maximum.
Payroll Tax
The primary insurance amount is the sum of three separate percentages of the AIME. It is the initial benefit a retiree receives, and it increases with any future COLA.
PIA
The Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund is what most people picture when they hear "Social Security." This trust fund pays benefits to retired workers and their spouses and dependents. It also pays benefits to the survivors of deceased retirees.
OASI
OASDI stands for Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance. It encompasses both the retirement portion of Social Security (OASI) and the disability insurance program (DI).
OASDI
The full retirement age began at 65 but is slowly increasing to the final age of 67 for those born in 1960 or later.
Full Retirement Age
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Employer Contribution
Every covered worker contributes 6.2% of their paycheck in OASDI payroll taxes, which constitutes the "employee contribution" toward Social Security.
Employee Contribution
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Early Retirement Age
DI stands for Disability Insurance. While most people associate Social Security with retirement, it also technically encompasses disability insurance payments to almost nine million Americans.
DI
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Covered Earnings
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COLA
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Beneficiary
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AIME