Trump faces barrage of Democratic counter-proposals on gas tax

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.

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.