Trump faces barrage of Democratic counter-proposals on gas tax
· Axios
With President Trump's proposal to suspend the gas tax facing headwinds on Capitol Hill, some Democratic lawmakers are offering alternative approaches to get fuel costs under control.
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Why it matters: This goes beyond a simple debate about gas prices and taps into fundamental disagreements between the two parties about which parts of society should shoulder the costs of war and inflation.
- Trump wants to relieve consumers' tax burden by cutting revenue to the federal government. Democrats want to redistribute any corporate profits made off the conflict in Iran.
- A bill set to be introduced by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), for instance, would tax oil companies for any profits derived from selling oil at a cost of greater than $75 per barrel.
Sherman's bill would impose a 100% windfall tax on those profits, according to text of the measure first obtained by Axios.
- That tax revenue would then be redistributed back to consumers in the form of a tax rebate.
- The tax would stay in effect for the duration of the war in Iran — or until oil drops below $75 per gallon.
Zoom in: This is just one of several Democratic proposals to combat both inflation and what they say is wartime price gouging.
- Several congressional Democrats, including Sherman and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), have called for a ban on U.S. companies exporting oil in order to increase domestic supply.
- Nearly every Democrat in Congress has coalesced around another alternative they believe would end the supply strain keeping gas prices high: Forcing an end to the war in Iran.
Reality check: The Trump administration has ruled out an oil export moratorium and ignored lawmakers' demands to end the war.
- There is little indication they will be any more agreeable to Sherman's windfall tax.