Chapter 1: What are the implications of the recent government shutdown?
The government shutdown may have been the biggest story to come out of Capitol Hill this year, but behind the scenes, Republican lawmakers were working to pass legislation and confirm President Trump's nominees.
At the forefront of those efforts is Senate Majority Leader John Thune. In this episode, Daily Wire D.C. Bureau Chief Tim Rice sits down with Thune to discuss the struggles and wins of 2025 and to look ahead to 2026.
I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. This is a special edition of Morning Wire.
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Chapter 2: How did John Thune manage the Senate during a historic year?
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The following is an interview between Daily Wire D.C. Bureau Chief Tim Rice and Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Senator Thune, thank you so much for sitting down with us today. I know it's a busy time. We've got a lot going on and it's been a busy year. So let's start by talking about that. How would you I believe the Senate was in session 44 out of 52 weeks this year. Is that correct? That's close.
Chapter 3: What were the major legislative wins in 2025?
I think to my colleagues in the Senate, it feels like 52 out of 52, but it is. It was a historic number of weeks in session, days in session, hours in session, and record number of votes cast. In fact, we went back eight decades, back to the 1940s, And there's only been one other time in 1976 where a Senate cast more votes than we did this year.
So it's been, yeah, it's been busy in many ways, sort of exhausting, I think, for a lot of folks. But I would also say productive. And, you know, a lot of times I don't equate volume like number of votes with actually accomplishment or getting things done. But I think in this case. It's been a very productive Senate, too, in terms of the things that we've accomplished. Definitely.
But despite that, it seems like, you know, the peanut gallery is still chirping. You know, Senate can't get anything done. Senate Republicans can't get anything done. Do you think that the success of the one big, beautiful bill almost sort of hurt you from a PR perspective?
Do you think that bundling so much stuff into one massive piece of legislation deprives you of the opportunity to really drum home, hammer home the fact that We are accomplishing a lot.
Yeah, it does in some ways because we loaded that thing up with so much of our agenda. In fact, the president's agenda for the most part was all accomplished in that one big beautiful bill where it's national security or the border, energy, tax policy. You know, school choice has been a priority for the movement for a long time, newborn accounts. childcare, the Farm Bill.
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Chapter 4: What challenges did Senate Republicans face this year?
I mean, we basically built the Farm Bill and the One Big Beautiful Bill too. And then it actually included the biggest spending reduction literally in history. And something that if you're a fiscal conservative like I am, we're really proud to be able to point to. But it does, it packs so much into one big piece of legislation.
And it was a, you know, just getting that across the finish line was a Herculean task. If you'd spread that out, you know, these things over a long period of time, like we would normally do, then it would look like a lot of stuff. But where are the other things we're getting done, too?
I mean, we've processed the president's noms, and we've done 24 now what we call continuing resolution—I should say congressional review, resolutions of disapproval, which undoes a lot of the Biden damage by— repealing a lot of the burdensome Biden regulations and freeze up energy production in this country and a whole range of other things. And we've had some bipartisan accomplishments too.
So it's been busy, you know, just in terms of volume of votes and time and in session and all that too. But I think also I would argue very productive, but doing it all in one big, a lot of that one big package does, yeah, then it gets the peanut gallery going like, why don't you guys do anything this week, you know?
So. Well, so let's unpack that. We can give you an opportunity to make up for the press conferences that you maybe didn't have. What would you say are—I'm going to try to limit you to three. What would you say are the three most important or maybe important parts of the Big Beautiful Bill that people don't know about? Feel free to answer however you want, but give us a peek inside.
Well, I think first off, and I would say, because I think the first job we have, and I always tell people, if you don't get national security right, the rest is conversation.
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Chapter 5: What are the key components of the 'One Big Beautiful Bill'?
So, we really made up for the Biden years when they weren't funding the military. We put money in there to build the wall at the border and to close the border, which the president has effectively and successfully done. But, you know, we needed to make sure that we had not only border wall money, but we had personnel for border patrol agents.
detention facilities, all the things that we needed to do that were backed up. And so I kind of put it in the category of making the country safer and more secure. And so I would say that was the first and foremost thing. And then it's about making the country more prosperous. And I think the tax policy will be really key to that.
I would argue that not only extending the policies from 2017, which included lower rates for families and doubling of the child tax credit and near doubling of the standard deduction. And there's a 199A deduction for small businesses in there. But We also did no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, reduced taxes for seniors on Social Security.
So I think the tax policy in and of itself is going to be enormously stimulative to the economy. You look at bonus depreciation, interest deductibility, R&D expensing. Those are all things that on the business side— I think it's going to lead to growth in the economy and better paying jobs. So I think that people are going to see a better future as a result of the economic pieces of it.
And then there's a whole bunch of other things that I would kind of put in there together. I mentioned some of them having to do with just policies that we think are consistent with a conservative view of how this country ought to be run. I mean, given... You know, the school choice policies have been something that's been a part of our agenda for a long time.
You look at these newborn accounts and what a difference that will make in the lives of families and young people who are being born today to be able to put money aside for their futures. Those are all incentives in this bill that I think are just going to lead to a better quality of life for a lot of the American people.
Yeah. Now, of all those policies, I noticed that you didn't mention health care. And I know that there wasn't that much of a health care component in the big, beautiful bill. But that is, of course, once again, the topic du jour here on Capitol Hill. So what's going on? What's your thinking on this? And what's the caucus's thinking on this?
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Chapter 6: How does John Thune view the future of healthcare legislation?
What are the next steps? I mean, the president's been very clear about what he wants to see. The Democrats have been very clear to the point of shutting the government down about what they want to see. What do you hope – the Congress and the president can accomplish on the healthcare front?
I think first and foremost, and we did do some of this in the one big beautiful bill, but rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse. We did that in the Medicaid program. We put work requirements in, and then states had figured out how to game the program, and so we clamped down on some of that, and we achieved a significant amount of savings there.
And then we put in this rural hospital transformation fund, which For if you've got representative rural hospitals like I do, I think the states are going to take full advantage of that in trying to ensure that we've got health care that's accessible to people all across the country, including in rural areas.
But I think to your point, the Democrats' view of this is to extend Obamacare and particularly pieces of Obamacare that are rife with waste, fraud, and abuse. And our approach on that has always been
You know, let's instead of enriching the insurance companies and the way this thing is structured, particularly these enhanced Biden subsidies, structured in a way that incentivizes insurance companies to auto-enroll people. So you got a lot of people out there who don't even know they're covered, don't know they have insurance because they're not paying anything. They got $0 premiums.
They're auto-enrolled by the insurance company, which is getting the payment directly from the government. There are no income caps. So now you've got people making $500,000 or $600,000 a year who are getting subsidies from the federal taxpayers on health insurance. So that model, that business model is not what we are for.
What we do believe makes sense is a model that creates for expansion of health savings accounts. And putting the money back in the pockets of people in this country, incentivizing them to buy the insurance that makes sense for them rather than buying the insurance the government tells them they have to buy. And so they get a better rate, lower premium, and better access to coverage.
And I think those are things – those are elements of healthcare policy that we think make sense and none of which were included in what the Democrats voted on last week or what the Democrats in the House are trying to get done over there now.
Yeah. Now, we've covered legislation. That's obviously – the main job of the Senate, but another big part is nominations, right? Confirming the president's nominees. This was the first year of a presidential administration or Republican presidential administration. It's almost hard to remember how many people have been confirmed and how many nominees went through.
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Chapter 7: What strategies are being employed for confirming presidential nominees?
So can you just kind of give us the year in review, the look back at that?
Well, I will tell you this, Tim. One of the reasons we cast so many votes this year, early on especially, is because the Democrats took unprecedented steps to basically blow up the nominations process. President Trump is the first president in history
who didn't have one of his nominees to a position in his administration confirmed either by voice vote or unanimous consent in the Senate, which is a way of taking non-controversial nominees and be able to move them and get them in their position.
The Democrats were so dug in fighting President Trump that even the most non-controversial positions in his administration, they forced us to do the long way. So we spent the first six months doing it the long way, and it just got to the point where, you know, the president is sitting there. He's got all these vacant positions.
He can't, you know, run the government because he doesn't have his people in place. And I think when the people vote for a president, that's what they're voting for. They want him to be able to assemble his team and get them in place. So we made some tweaks, some changes in the rules that enables us to move them now in stacks. That'll put us over 400 for the year.
which is well ahead not only of his first term in office, but Biden as well. And it just makes sense. To me, it's about, you know, if you want your government to run and function effectively and efficiently, and I think most Americans do, they want to see a president get his team in place. So we've been keeping our heads down and getting that done.
Great. Switching gears a little bit to a more somber topic, I know you've been asked a lot about the rise of political violence and anti-Semitic violence. And I think we can safely add it back into the mix now, you know, the continuing and perhaps resurgent threat of radical Islamic extremism. terrorism. Obviously, this is a big issue.
This is an issue that the president is very much concerned about. And it's something that, you know, the whole of government and the world is going to have to deal with. But for your part, as the Senate majority leader, as a senator, as an American, what do you what do you think should be done on this? What do you hope to accomplish anything looking forward to the new year?
What sort of role do you want the Senate to play in combating these threats?
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Chapter 8: What measures are being taken to address political violence and security?
Is my neighborhood safe? Is my community safe? My world safe? And, you know, these days there was so much, like you said, going on and these attacks that have been in the news lately, it raises a lot of those questions for people in this country. I do think that the president's clear-eyed focus on making our community safer, his investment in securing the border,
working with us, his investment in America's national security and projecting a policy of peace through strength around the world are all things that contribute to keeping people in this country safe. But when you see things like what happened in Australia or even things that, you know, some of these horrible incidents here, in the United States, they're really tragic.
And, you know, there's a lot going on out there right now. And I think that the best thing we can do is try to put in place the things that our law enforcement needs, that our military needs, to deter bad behavior. And then, of course, obviously when it happens, make sure that people are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
And I think the president's focus on law enforcement and on security is very, in a clear-eyed way, focused on that. But I do think that we want to be good partners in that and contributing where we can, if that's a function of resources, if that's a function of ensuring that they're the right personnel, they got the teams in place in different
areas of our government that can oversee and try and ensure that we have security and safety in this country. We're all in on that. Like I said, that's the most important, in my view, job of a government is to provide safety for the public, the people that you serve and represent.
Great. Well, Senator, thank you again for taking the time. It's been an incredible year and looking forward to see what you guys come up with in 2026. Thanks, Tim.
Merry Christmas to you and your family. Absolutely.
That was Daily Wire D.C. Bureau Chief Tim Rice speaking with Senate Majority Leader John Thune. And this has been a special edition of Morning Wire.
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