Democrats swept both chambers of Congress on Tuesday because working Americans are paying $4.14 a gallon for gas and $6.29 for diesel — and the party now seizing the Ways and Means gavel is already preparing to make those same Americans foot the bill for whatever comes next.

The midterms were a referendum on affordability. Daily Caller reported that 65% of Americans disapproved of Trump's handling of the Iran war, per Pew Research, and gas prices have surged 36% — roughly a dollar per gallon — since the U.S. and Israel began striking Iran in February, according to AAA data cited by Business Insider. Diesel is up 70% nationally. Trump himself conceded the point on Fox News: "I don't think it's the war, I think it's the gas prices. People agree with what I'm doing in Iran, but they really, probably weren't willing to do the short-term consequence of paying more for gasoline."

So voters tossed the bums out. Fox News reported Schumer declaring "relief is on the way." But what relief? Bloomberg Tax News noted that the new Democratic majority on Ways and Means now faces a choice: deliver on cost-of-living promises or chase its base's itch to investigate Trump. The 77-year-old likely chairman retaking the gavel isn't exactly a profile in working-class solidarity.

Here's the bipartisan failure. Republicans started a war that blew up energy prices and spent months pretending the pump pain was temporary. Democrats campaigned on that anger but their likely speaker, Hakeem Jeffries, already voted against Thomas Massie's amendment to slash $3.3 billion in military aid to Israel, according to the Daily Caller, and publicly opposes Medicare for All. Over 100 House Democrats voted for that aid cut; Jeffries wasn't one of them. The DSA may oppose his speakership over it. He's not the only one serving the wrong constituency.

Follow the money. In California, a ballot measure imposing a 5% tax on billionaires went down with just 43.7% support, CNBC reported. Google co-founder Sergey Brin alone dumped $102 million into a nonprofit fighting it. Meanwhile, a competing measure blocking new personal property taxes was passing with 54.6%. The donor class protects its own — from both parties.

Trump said he can "work with" the new Democratic majority. Of course he can. The tax code is one of the few places where bipartisan consensus still exists: it's written by and for the people who can afford to buy a seat at the table.

The question heading into January isn't whether Democrats will raise taxes. It's whether a single person in that committee room will write a bill that costs the donor class instead of you.