Introducing The Isabel Brown Show: Inside the Shutdown with Speaker Mike Johnson

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Ben Shapiro Show — "Introducing The Isabel Brown Show: Inside the Shutdown with Speaker Mike Johnson"

Date: October 5, 2025
Host: Isabel Brown (The Isabel Brown Show, Daily Wire)
Guest: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson

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Episode Overview

This special crossover episode introduces The Isabel Brown Show on Daily Wire Plus featuring an in-depth conversation with Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. The key focus is dissecting the recent government shutdown: how it happened, who is responsible, the real-world impacts, and the political strategies at play. The discussion also delves into generational shifts in conservatism and the influence of young activists like Charlie Kirk.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Understanding the Government Shutdown (01:06 – 06:33)

• Civics Context for Young Listeners:
  Isabel Brown begins by asking Speaker Johnson to clarify the complexities of a government shutdown for younger audiences who may have missed out on robust civics education.

• Speaker Johnson Explains Congressional Budget Process:

  • 12 Appropriations Bills: The federal budget should be divided into 12 separate bills for careful debate and deliberation.
  • Chronic Problems: Congress has instead favored massive "omnibus" bills, often unread and undebated.
  • Johnson’s Reform Efforts: Johnson describes pushing Congress back toward "regular order," shepherding through 12 separate appropriations bills this year—a rare bipartisan achievement, but passage timing fell short (FY ends Sept. 30).
  • Stopgap Measure: House Republicans proposed a 7-week clean "continuing resolution" (CR) to buy time and avoid shutdown.

• Breakdown in Negotiations:

  • Senate Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer, opposed the House CR. Johnson claims this is due to pressure from the party's left flank.
  • Johnson accuses Senate Democrats of prioritizing politics over citizens' welfare:

    "Chuck Schumer is running scared of the far left base of his party." (05:30)

• Consequences of Shutdown:

  • Critical Programs Halted:
    • WIC (Women, Infants, and Children nutrition)
    • Pay for soldiers, TSA, and border agents delayed
    • Hurricane season risks (FEMA hampered)
    • Veterans’ suicide prevention programs stopped

    "You have real problems with FEMA... if your flood insurance lapses or you buy a new home... you can't get that right now because FEMA just got shut down." (06:12)

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2. The Alleged Drift Toward Marxism (06:45 – 09:17)

• Isabel’s Challenge:
  Isabel probes what "gravitating towards Marxism" really means in current policy proposals.

• Johnson’s Critique of Democrat Proposals:

  • Democrats’ counter-offer included $1.5 trillion in new spending and provisions for healthcare to illegal aliens.
  • Attempt to claw back $50B from rural hospital funds, which Johnson suggests is politically targeted at red states.

  "They want to make sure they give healthcare to illegal aliens again." (07:51, Johnson)

• Accusation of Political Motivation:

  • Johnson says Schumer’s reversal on shutdown politics is about appeasing the far left and protecting his own seat.

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3. Generational Shifts & The "Charlie Kirk Effect" (09:17 – 13:55)

• Youth Conservatism on the Rise:

  • Isabel and Johnson discuss increasing skepticism among young Americans towards big government.
  • The late Charlie Kirk is positioned as a galvanizing figure whose loss is mourned, yet whose legacy, they claim, is fueling youth political engagement.

  "If we're going to honor the life and legacy of Charlie, the best thing we can do is live like Charlie did... The approach was win in love. He was never hateful." (10:44, Johnson)

• Turning Point USA’s Influence:

  • Noted as a driving force for getting young conservatives active, with alumni like Rep. Luna now in Congress.
  • Johnson likens faith and positive messaging as antidotes to what he calls "woke progressive nihilism."

  "This is not your grandfather's Democratic party. Right. This is a far different... they're literally going to elect a Marxist as the mayor of America's largest city..." (09:40, Johnson)

• Faith in Politics:

  • Johnson recounts referencing the Bible in his first speech as Speaker, facing backlash but now seeing more colleagues outspoken about faith.

  "If you want to know what I think about anything, go dust off the Bible on your shelf. That's pretty... I'm a Bible-believing Christian." (12:30, Johnson)

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4. Looking Ahead — The Future of Congress and Post-Shutdown Plans (13:55 – 16:53)

• Legislative Achievements and Ambitions:

  • Johnson touts the first six months of the new Congress as historic for Republican productivity, citing unity and legislative victories.
  • Plans for more major bills: working families tax cuts, regulatory reform, and further reconciliation efforts.

  "As long as we can [stay unified], we are unlimited in the potential of what we can achieve." (14:47, Johnson)

• Electoral Prospects:

  • Johnson discusses Republican advantages in the upcoming midterms: favorable maps, seat distribution, and newly energized youth engagement post-Kirk.
  • Emphasizes momentum for conservative causes and the role of divine providence.

  "The aftermath of Charlie's passing and the energy that puts in the hearts and minds of people—young people who want to be engaged—has a big effect in the midterms that nobody saw coming." (16:21, Johnson)

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5. Closing Thoughts and Host Reflections (16:53 – End)

• Isabel Brown reaffirms her confidence in Gen Z's potential to shape America's future and closes with thanks to Speaker Johnson for his leadership and commitment to conservative principles.

"We've been the apologists over here on our show for the fact that Gen Z will save America." (16:53, Brown)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On legislative process and failures:

  "The bill is sometimes 2,000 pages long. No one's read it, understood it, not debated it...That is bad stewardship." (01:50, Johnson)

• On the real impact of the shutdown:

  "This is real stuff. People get harmed and it's totally unnecessary. And Chuck Schumer's doing it for politics." (06:33, Johnson)

• On the new wave of youth conservative activism:

  "There's this sort of burning desire to just get engaged and get involved. The Charlie Kirk effect, we're calling it." (10:11, Johnson)

• On faith in politics:

  "We've been trying to bring back those principles... more and more people are seeing it that way... It's so refreshing to us because…we're not the freaks anymore." (13:13, Johnson)

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Key Timestamps

• 01:06 – Isabel Brown introduces Speaker Mike Johnson; asks for a simple explanation of the shutdown.
• 01:23 – 06:33 – Johnson breaks down the appropriations process, House efforts, blame for shutdown, and direct impacts.
• 06:45 – Discussion shifts to accusations of Marxism and specifics in Democrat proposals.
• 09:17 – Dialogue on youth engagement, Charlie Kirk’s legacy, and the transformation of American conservatism.
• 12:10 – Isabel asks about the impact of generational shifts on Congress and the Republican agenda.
• 13:55 – Outlook: what to expect from this Congress in the near term (legislation, elections).
• 16:53 – Isabel’s closing reflections on Gen Z and thanks to Speaker Johnson.

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Summary Takeaways

This episode serves as a primer on both the mechanics and the politics of the government shutdown, delivered accessibly for a younger, civics-hungry audience. Speaker Johnson offers his inside perspective, casting blame for the shutdown on Senate Democrats' leftward drift and political motivations, while presenting Republicans as responsible stewards seeking only procedural reforms and time. The conversation transitions seamlessly into a broader reflection on generational shifts in conservatism, the importance of faith and values in politics, and optimism for the future—inviting listeners to see the present crisis as an opportunity for engaged citizenship and conservative renewal.

Transcript

[Isabel Brown]

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[Narrator/Announcer]

Daily Wire added an incredible new talent to our lineup. The Isabel Brown show premiered on Daily Wire plus on September 8, and she's been crushing it. Smart, unapologetic coverage of politics, culture, science, faith, and everything in between. Every weekday, Isabel takes on the most interesting issues, from real discussions about what it'll take to save Western civilization to her perspective as a new wife and mom. This is your invitation to watch the Isabel Brown show live every weekday at 12pm Eastern on Daily Wire plus, or find and follow wherever you listen to podcasts you're about to hear Isabel Brown with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on the government shutdown. What happened, who's really responsible, and what comes next. This is the Isabel Brown Show.

[Isabel Brown]

Speaker Johnson, thank you so much for taking a few minutes out of your very, very busy schedule. For young people today, the media is very much twisting the narrative of what a government shutdown even is and how we got here. So for our viewers, who might be the average 18 year old that didn't get the world's best civics education, can you explain what's going on this week?

[Speaker Mike Johnson]

I don't blame anybody for not understanding all that. It's kind of complicated. But let me make it really simple, okay? Go back the 1974 Budget Control act, okay? There's a federal law that says the way that Congress is supposed to spend taxpayer dollars is very with great stewardship, okay? You're supposed to do 12 separate appropriations bills every year. And why is that important? Because if you divide all the federal funding into 12 separate categories, then you can accurately debate it and have dialogue and have thoughtful conversation. Gee, what is the best use of taxpayer dollars? We want to spend it efficiently and effectively, right? So you divide all the government into 12 different categories and you do that. Here's Congress hasn't done that for a long, long time, okay? Because Congress has a tendency to not do its duty and responsibility because it's hard work. So what they do instead is they kick the can down the road till the end of the year, usually right about Christmas time. And there's a giant omnibus spending Bill, you heard the term omnibus, Right? And that's where they just cram everything in all at once. The bill is sometimes 2,000 pages long. No one's read it, understood it, not debated it. And it's massive amounts of money, trillions of dollars, all at once. That is bad stewardship. Okay. So I became speaker almost two years ago in October of 20. I was not expecting to have the job, and I was one of. I'm a fiscal conservative and I'm worried about Congress being irresponsible with taxpayer funds. And so I made it a commitment after I became speaker that I would force the muscle memory back to Congress to make them do what we call regular order. And that is 12 separate appropriations bills going through both chambers and working through it. It's taken a long time to do that because it's like pushing a boulder up a hill trying to force people into this job. But the good news is we did it. And this year, the House Appropriations Committee, in a bipartisan fashion, using our Republican majority, we got 12 separate appropriations bills done through committee. We got three of them passed off the floor. The Senate, for the first time in years, passed three separate bills off the floor on their side. The problem is those three bills don't match up. Exactly. So what happens in our process is that if there's a difference between the two chambers, then you have a subset of members of both chambers who go to what's called a conference committee to work out the differences. That's it. They finish that up, they send it to the President for signature. We're in the middle of that process. Okay. And it's a big thing, a big achievement to get Congress back to it. But we ran out of time because the end of the fiscal year is September 30, not the end of the calendar year. So here we are on the eve of that. So what do we do? Well, we have the majority in both chambers. Republicans are in charge. We're sensible, we're responsible. We're efficient, effective government people. So we said, let's do a short term stopgap funding measure called a cr. We call it a continuing resolution. Resolution to keep the government open for seven more weeks to November 21st. Why? We're just trying to buy time. We just want to have a little more time for the appropriators to finish this process and get it done. Get the bills to President Trump's desk and get them done. And that's a simple thing. Chuck Schumer and all the Democrats here have given speeches for decades about how you can't shut the government down, and you got to keep it open. Suddenly he just changed his tune, though. And so they voted against it. Now, they've done that a few times. Leader Thune in the Senate is going to continue to put the House's bill because we passed it in the House two weeks ago. We had one Democrat join us. The rest of them voted to shut the government down. But we got it done. We sent it to the Senate, and that's where it sits. So here's the problem. The clock ran out September 30th. So at midnight on October 1st today, we shut the government down. Now what's the problem? That's a serious problem because there are real Americans affected by this nonsense. Two questions that ought to be answered there. Number one, why is Chuck Schumer doing this? Why did he change his tune? The guy's been in Washington, like, longer than you and I. Almost as long as I've been alive, okay? And he's always been against this. He said it was dangerous and we'd be derelict in our duty. And how could you crush the American people when suddenly he's doing it? Here's the answer. J.D. vance said it today. I've said it. We've all pointed it out. It's a good question, and the answer's simple. Chuck Schumer is running scared of the far left base of his party. He's up for reelection in a couple years, and he's afraid that AOC is gonna challeng because the Marxists are taking over the party. Now, Chuck Schumer is a far left legislator, but he's not quite liberal enough for all of them. So he's got to show a fight. He's got to show that he's fighting Trump. So he's decided to shut the government down. Here's what happens. Real people get hurt. Yeah, I mean, you're talking about the WIC program, right? Women Infants and Children Nutrition supplemental program. It's not funded anymore because we don't have the ability to send the money because they just dried it up. You got soldiers, TSA agents, Border patrol agents who do have to go to work, but they're not going to get paid. It's a real problem. I mean, if somebody's, let's say there's a young soldier who's deployed overseas right now, left his young wife and two small children at home, they're not going to get their monthly paycheck. They don't get it until all this is resolved. You have real problems with fema for example, we're in the middle of hurricane season. I'm from Louisiana. This is serious business. As we sit here today. There are two hurricanes off the eastern seaboard of the United States. If your flood insurance lapses or if you buy a new home and you need a new insurance policy, you can't get that right now because FEMA just got shut down for those services. All sorts of veterans health care.

[Isabel Brown]

Yep.

[Speaker Mike Johnson]

We run the suicide prevention programs every day through this. They just got shut down. I mean, this is this real stuff. People get harmed and it's totally unnecessary. And Chuck Schumer's doing it for politics.

[Isabel Brown]

This idea of gravitating towards Marxism. What specifically are some of these initiatives that Chuck Schumer is pushing for?

[Speaker Mike Johnson]

Well, these. When we say big government liberals, I mean these guys are taking to the next level. Okay. Marxism, of course, you know, communism and socialism are sort of branches of that underlying philosophy. Right. Socialism is you just want the government to take over everything basically, and all means of production and control and everything. That's what they're moving towards. So instead of the simple seven week stopgap funding measure, a clean continuing resolution, clean by. We said we didn't add any of our Republican or conservative priorities to it. We just status quo for seven more weeks, really. Just buying time instead of just voting on that. Which he always has through his whole career and they did 13 times during the Biden administration. Okay. Over the last previous four years. Chuck Schumer votes no and instead he sends us a counter proposal. Well, guess what's in that? He wants to add 1.5 trillion with a T dollars in new spending on a seven week stopgap funding measure. And included in that, they want to make sure they give healthcare to illegal aliens again.

[Isabel Brown]

Naturally, yes.

[Speaker Mike Johnson]

And they want to claw back $50 billion that we put into a rural hospital fund to prop those up because many of them are in real financial straits. And people say, why would he do that? Well, you think about it, a lot of those rural counties and areas are in red states. I mean, you have to wonder what kind of thought went into this. They just completely overplayed their hand and it's absurd. Right before I walked into here, I was talking to the. I've been on the phone with the President for the last hour and he and I were talking, he said, mike, I can't believe how crazy this is. There's nothing for us to negotiate because the President likes to make a deal, right? Yep, there's. Mr. President, there is nothing to make a deal. With there's nothing we can give. We didn't put any of our priorities. There's nothing I can take back to sweeten the deal. He goes, I can't believe Schumer did that. I can't either. But he painted himself into a corner.

[Isabel Brown]

That's the part that I think is so fascinating to me, is I keep trying to ask myself and give the benefit of the doubt here to the left on any sort of political legitimacy to this game whatsoever. And yet I don't think they're aware of where the average American, particularly young Americans, are at right now, especially critical of big government policies. You know, I'm a very close friend of Charlie Kirk, and the last few weeks has been incredibly fascinating, obviously heartbreaking as well, but so stirring to see how young people are responding to this and becoming more generally conservative and skeptical of big government, and yet they seem completely unaware of that from the left side of the aisle here.

[Speaker Mike Johnson]

Well, two things explain it. Trump derangement syndrome is very real. You know, they just can't countenance him and everything he says or does. They're instinctively for the opposite, no matter how crazy. Right. Then you had the woke progressive left that effectively took over the party a few years back, and they're driving that party right off a cliff. This is not your grandfather's Democratic Party. Right. This is a far different. They actually are Marxists. In fact, they're literally going to elect a Marxist as the mayor of America's largest city in a few weeks. It's a stunning development. And we've been mourning Charlie's loss. He was a friend of mine as well, as you know, and I think I spoke at four vigils for him over the last couple weeks. I was speaking at the Kennedy center, which is the one we did here in DC Forum and there and at all the vigils I spoke at and of course, at the event in Arizona. I know, Emmy, you were there. Is amazing. The numbers of people that turned out and the numbers of young people who are both so broken because they feel so close to Charlie. You know, his voice is ubiquitous and his image. They're all involved in Turning Point and many more want to be now. So they're mourning that. But at the same time, they feel like there's this sort of burning desire to just get engaged and get involved. Right. The Charlie Kirk effect, we're calling it. It's real. And what I said, I summarized in all the comments that I made. I said, you know, if we're going to honor the life and Legacy of Charlie. The best thing we can do is live like Charlie did, right? And two things. You advance his principles and you adopt his approach. The approach was win in love. He's trying to win over hearts and minds. And he was never hateful. Charlie was like me. Mike Huckabee said one time he's running for governor of Arkansas many years. He said, you know, I'm a conservative, but I'm not mad at anybody. I mean, that's our approach, right? We're going to be winsome warriors. But you have to be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have, as scripture says, and be ready for those debates. And Charlie was. But he never hated anybody on the other side of the table. That kind of message, the hopeful message, the things that he articulated, faith, family, freedom, patriotism. American exceptionalism. People respond to that. And it's in one sense, in my view, it's a response to the woke progressive nihilism that leads to emptiness and despair and hopelessness. It's an offer of hope and eternity and real truth. And that's what people are yearning for, you know. But if we present that in a political context and we show how those things connect, which Charlie was an expert at doing, now you're really cooking and people get engaged for that.

[Isabel Brown]

We're starting to see that generational shift in the Charlie Kirk effect here on the Hill. I know there's one turning point USA alum who's a member of Congress, Representative Luna, who's quite remarkable. We go way back to see her journey has been absolutely incredible. How do you think that's gonna impact the future of the party here on the Hill? I know generationally young people are all about big government sucks and socialism sucks. So you're seeing that tug of war happen even on the right side of the political aisle today. How do you think that impacts the shutdown and your agenda moving forward?

[Speaker Mike Johnson]

There's an old saying, if the people will lead, the leaders will follow. Right. And so what you'll see is, and you've already seen, inspires more backbone and confidence in people who actually believe those things. Were reluctant to talk about it. I became speaker a couple years ago. The first thing I did was I did an interview. Well, I did my floor speech and I did an interview with Hannity. And we just go live that night. And I mean, this is unrehearsed and unprepared because I wasn't expecting to get the job. And he says, what? People don't know anything about Mike Johnson. He said, what could you Say, how could you summarize what you believe, your philosophy? And I said, I didn't think, I didn't have talking points over it. I said, well, Sean, I don't know, it's pretty simple for me. If you want to know what I think about anything, go dust off the Bible on your shelf. That's pretty. I'm a Bible believing Christian. I had no idea what a landmine that was. And they came after me with sharp knives, you know. But some of us have always spoken like that. We've been trying to bring back those principles Charlie was about. What I loved about our friend was he liked the temporal policy debates. He was about the temporal things, but he was much more about the eternal things, the permanent things, you know, And I try to, and I have always tried to weave that into everything we do. And now more and more people are seeing it that way. And you've heard people as high ranked as the Vice President say in the last few days, I've spoken more about my faith in Christ over the last two weeks than I had, you know, ever before. Yeah. And everybody's doing that now. So it's so refreshing to us because we're walking around like, wow, we're not the freaks anymore. Like, oh, this is the thing. Everybody, welcome to the party. And more, more people are more, I think, you know, open about what they really believe. And what is the, what is the core foundational principle behind the policies that we're advancing? That's what wins over the hearts and minds and we have a real opportunity to do that now.

[Isabel Brown]

Last question for you. If you're giving a message to the next generation for what to expect out of this shutdown and in general, what to expect out of this Congress, what can we expect to see in the next few days and months?

[Speaker Mike Johnson]

Well, you can make an argument really objectively, the first six months of this Congress was the most productive, successful with any of any in memory. Maybe it's of all time going back to the American Revolution. Why? Because we had unified government. So we had President Trump in the White House and you have Republicans in charge of the Senate and the House. Because we got a mandate in the election in 24 and we acted on that. So we did the big beautiful bill and this marquee legislative achievements with the smallest margin in US history had a one vote margin for 90 of the first hundred days. We have defied expectation because the Republicans stayed unified. And my message to all my colleagues is as long as we can do that, we are unlimited in the potential of what we can achieve. So we're planning more of those big marquee pieces of legislation. The big beautiful bill, the working families tax cuts bill, we call it, was a reconciliation bill, which you can do. You don't need 60 votes in the Senate, which is the normal case. You can do it with a bare majority. So we're planning reconciliation 2.0 right now for the fall. I'd like to do a third one in the spring before we're done with this Congress. And then we have some other marquee things that we're doing in addition to all the things the President's done with executive orders that we're codifying, putting into a written law, so regulatory reform, tax cuts and pro growth policies for the economy, but then also changing the size and shape and scope of government all at once. I mean, this is something that many of us have been working on for our whole lives, and we have marquee achievements for all these things. But there's more to come. And then we go into an election year, the midterm election next year. I just literally got off the phone with the President and he said, mike, I can't believe. Sorry, I'm doing his voice.

[Isabel Brown]

You're pretty good at it.

[Speaker Mike Johnson]

So we'll keep only twice in 90 years, you know, the president's picked up seats in the fish midterm. I said, but you're going to do it, sir. We're going to define history. Lots of reasons for that. But we had a demographic shift in 2024. We'll keep a lot of those voters. We have a favorable election map. There's way more House Democrats sitting right now, as we're talking in districts that President Trump won than that Harris won Republicans and Harris seats. And we've got a favorable map. The Democrats are in free fall. And the fourth factor that none of us saw coming is the aftermath of Charlie's passing and the energy that that puts in the hearts and minds of people, young people who want to be engaged, they understand what's happening. They want to take their country back. And we're presenting to them an opportunity to do that. I think that has a big effect in the midterms that nobody saw coming. God has a way of working all things together for good. Charlie used to preach that, and he believed it, and we do. His passing was so untimely and tragic and unspeakable to me. In some ways it's. Does it seem real?

[Isabel Brown]

Yeah.

[Speaker Mike Johnson]

But. But God is going to use that. He already is. And there's such great hope in that. And Charlie is watching all this, and he knows, and that's a great comfort to all of us.

[Isabel Brown]

Well, as you know, we've been the apologists over here on our show for the fact that Gen Z will save America. And we are incredibly excited to keep cheering you on and supporting everything you're doing to serve the American people. Thank you for your service to our country and for bringing back home the message that big government sucks.

[Speaker Mike Johnson]

Congrats for all your success. It's well earned and we're excited it keep going.

[Isabel Brown]

Thank you. Thank you again to Speaker Johnson for taking the time to join us and make sure you guys are subscribed to the channel to get tomorrow's episode and every episode thereafter. We can't wait to be spending some more time here on Capitol Hill to unveil all of the great plans to serve the American people the best way our elected officials know how.