Bio

Tevi Troy is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute.

From 2007 to 2009, Dr. Troy was the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service – the second in command and chief operating officer of the largest civilian department in the federal government, with a $716 billion annual budget and 67,000 employees.

 After receiving his Ph.D. in American Civilization from the University of Texas, Dr. Troy dedicated a dozen years to public service, working at senior levels in the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, executive agencies, and the White House. Before coming to HHS, Dr. Troy served as Deputy Assistant to the President for domestic policy.

Dr. Troy is the author of "Intellectuals and the American Presidency: Philosophers, Jesters, or Technicians," a study of the impact intellectuals have had on Presidential administrations.

Dr., Troy appears frequently on television and radio, and has written for a host of publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Commentary, Politico, National Affairs, and City Journal.

When he’s not busy with his day jobs, Dr. Troy and his wife Kami are plenty busy at home with four children under ten.


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Tevi Troy's Profile

Tevi Troy
Name:
Tevi Troy
Hometown:
Queens, New York
Joined:
Jun 22, 2010

Recent Comments

Tevi Troy

Thanks to Tim for the great plug for my think tank article.  Michael Allen also cited my piece in his influential Politico Playbook this morning.  As for Garrett Peterson's musing that a think tank job would be a dream job, I can only say that I agree, as long as you pick the right think tank.

Tevi Troy

Thanks to Kelly B for answering the question on In the Garden of the Beasts.  As for the number of books I read, which seems to have generated a fair bit of discussion, I decided a few years ago to be more disciplined about reading.  The number one time management change I made was that I renounced channel surfing entirely.  If my wife and I want to watch a specific show or movie, we do so.  But I no longer surf with the remote to see if there is anything compelling on.  This one change has helped me read many more books than I had been able to previously.

Tevi Troy

King Prawn: Thanks for listening, and spend wisely.  Very impressive that your kindle has no unread books in it.

Tevi Troy

 I like Crow's Nest's coinage of "Fake reader syndrome."  With respect to Misthiocracy and J. Voss, I am not sure you need to have read every "begat" to be able to claim to have read the Bible.  I will say, however, that Numbers is far more readable than Leviticus, especially from a plot perspective.  As for what Romney reads, I wrote this piece for the Washington Post about what the GOP candidates are reading: Romney is partial to science fiction.

Tevi Troy

 My guess is a bunch more, and I certainly want Hezbollah to think that.

Tevi Troy

Thanks to all for some thoughtful comments.  I felt bad for Denise, who had to endure a propaganda speech from her choir pew, and Heshmom, who had her Seder ruined by her sister in law's severely flawed analogy.  I am with tabula rasa, and wish that I could say that the Jewish community shared the no politics from the pulpit rule with the Mormons.  This does not mean that rabbis can't be political, but the pulpit should be neutral and not partisan ground.

Tevi Troy

Thanks to Diane and Josh for some good general questions, and to Josh for the idea that inspired my post.  Franco is right about the standard approach journalist questioners take, which is one of the points that I make in my Politico piece.  No one should be surprised that Paul Rahe has come up with some excellent questions, but my point is that I would like to see how candidates answer philosophical questions when they are all asked the same question.

Tevi Troy

Paules and Pilli have a point, but in the realm of realistic possibilities, the Pizzella-Carter approach is not only do-able, it has been done, at least at one department.

Ross Conatser's thoughtful post reminds us that government will need to take some important lessons from the private sector about belt-tightening, but that those lessons have yet to take hold.

Tevi Troy

Crow's Nest notes, appropriately, that the quality of reading material has gone down and our choices have gone up.  Tabula rasa is right that the book choices are underwhelming, but President Obama's summer reading selections are not that impressive, either.  And Quinn the Eskimo makes a good point that all of these reading selections are a snapshot in time.  It would be great to know the books that shaped the candidates as youths, but it's usually not possible.

Tevi Troy

 Thanks for the shout out, Pseudodionysius.  Happy to have saved you the time.

Pseudodionysius: Who managed to not only be quoted extensively in The Economist, but save me a ton of reading time in the process:

TEVI TROY, former official in George Bush's administration, now at the Hudson Institute, provides convenient one- or two-sentence summaries of the books that everyone in Washington, DC, claims, falsely, to have read:

Tevi Troy

You raise some excellent points, and I love Tom Thompson's line in Metropolitan: "I don't read novels. I prefer good literary criticism."  I was writing about a unique to DC phenomenon, in which conventional wisdom or, worse, policy is set by books that people have not read. 

Crow's Nest: Tevi,

That people claim to read books they haven't actually read is extremely common, and extremely annoying. Metropolitan skewers this tend, especially among the self-satisfied young.

But is it more concerning that people claim to have read things that they haven't, or that they have actually read the pop-intelligentsia like Gladwell and nothing else?

That is: more often than not, these people haven't actually read through anything worth reading. Their universe revolves around superficial conceptions and half-thought through notions which are provocative but easy to digest; ideas that fit on an index card and are great for cocktail party conversations, but are very simple, or, worse, democratized and popularized ideas that originally stemmed from profound writers but have become disfigured. · Jul 6 at 2:44am

Tevi Troy

Born Yesterday is a great example.  I wish I had thought of it when writing the piece.

Palaeologus: As I recall, the film Born Yesterday skewered D.C. talking heads for yapping about de Tocqueville's Democracy in America without reading it.

But, I'm not that picky. I'd settle for the hotshots reading the legislation that they "write." · Jul 5 at 7:14pm

Tevi Troy

 I did read the Woodward book, and I agree that it was not complimentary towards the White House decision-making process.  The fact that people use it to praise the White House is further proof of my thesis.

KC Mulville: Sometimes they may read a book but not grasp what the book really says. I had that experience recently with the Bob Woodward book, Obama's Wars.

I think even Woodward tried to spin it as a compliment to the president, but if you actually read it, it's anything but. Robert Gibbs said that the book showed that "... the President shepherded through a process, again, that was thoughtful and deliberate and focused to come up with what was our best chance at success."

I read it. It was a completely dysfunctional process. None of them trusted each other. The spin was that Obama led a thoughtful process ... what a joke! At the end of the process, Obama ignored everything the military said and imposed a self-serving political plan ...  · Jul 5 at 2:50pm

Tevi Troy

Thanks to all for the good suggestions for the not read list.  I particularly liked Aaron Miller's line about the Rush Limbaugh show.  Dogsbody's comment, which proved he hadn't read the article, was classic.  Points for the self-correction, though.  Waynester is assuming a lot if he thinks that Sanders wrote all of the speeches on which his book was based. 

Tevi Troy

 Raizy -- I'm a big hakarot hatov fan.  Love the idea of the 4th of July seder, and can't wait to do it next year.  Thanks.

Raizy: Cultivating hakoras hatov (gratitude) is vital to raising healthy children. 

Perhaps next year they'd enjoy participating in a Dennis Prager 4th of July Declaration (modeled after the Passover seder).

http://www.prageruniversity.com/4th-of-july-declaration.html · Jul 4 at 2:17pm

Tevi Troy

 Ross,

It's a matter of looking for the right opportunities.  You don't call them down to initiate a patriotic pep talk, but instead wait until they are a captive audience.  Last night, in the van on the way to the firewalks, I turned off the CD player and discussed the meaning of July 4th and why we were going to see fireworks.

Ross Conatser: I am curious as to how you initiate these talks.  Do you holler "Hey kids come down here?"  and just launch into it? · Jul 4 at 8:55am
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