| As far as political debates go, this one is pretty mild. Politicians as different as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) want the United States to stop importing Russian oil in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Top congressional leaders said Monday that they've reached a deal to do just that, and the Biden administration says it's considering it. Which all means it could happen pretty soon. Here's what you need to know. Why are gas prices going up right now? Today, oil prices reached a 13-year high amid concerns that the world will stop buying Russian oil. The average gas station in America is now charging more than $4 a gallon. Gas prices are caught in the same demand struggles that are driving so much inflation these days. But investors are also spooked at the idea that a major oil exporter could be cut off from the global market, which is pushing up prices and contributed to global stock market losses Monday, The Post's Aaron Gregg reports. What a Russian ban on oil imports would mean for the U.S. economy It would probably further increase prices at the pump and put more pressure on the U.S. energy supply, but by how much is unclear. As of 2021, Russia was the United States' third-largest oil supplier, behind Canada and Mexico, but it still doesn't supply a huge chunk of the country's international oil imports. Plus, some companies have already started their own boycott of Russian oil. And the United States has millions of barrels of its own it can release. "If I'm being honest, it probably doesn't have a big impact," Nikos Tsafos, an energy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Post's Early 202 of a U.S. ban. But any penny higher at the pump is felt keenly by many Americans.  Gas prices in Oakland, Calif., on Monday. (John Mabanglo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock) (John G Mabanglo/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock) | Why politicians are considering it It would be a powerfully symbolic action: An influential nation already struggling with high gas prices is willing to cut off a major nation's oil imports. That would go down as one of United States' strongest reactions to this invasion so far. Why Congress is out ahead of the Biden administration on this Last week, the White House originally warned that banning Russian oil would make prices go up too high. The last thing you want to do as president is raise energy prices on Americans; plus President Biden has been hit pretty hard in the polls by Americans who are pessimistic about the economy. But now, under pressure from Congress, the administration says it's actively considering supporting a ban. Speaking from Moldova over the weekend, Secretary of State Antony Blinken even suggested to CNN that the United States could try to get European countries in on the Russian oil boycott. And that would have a tangible effect on Russia's energy economy, because much of Russia's oil goes to the European Union. It could also cause gas prices globally to go even higher. Who is the Democrat who wants to 'defund the police'? We've talked about how the push to reduce funding for police is on the fringe of Democratic politics. "The answer is not to defund the police. It's to fund the police," Biden said in his State of the Union last week. But there is one Democratic member of Congress who does actively use the phrase "defund the police." This is Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), right after Biden's speech: Who she is: She's a liberal activist from St. Louis and new member of Congress who ousted a longtime Democrat in a primary. She got a lot of attention last summer for sleeping on the steps of the Capitol to urge the Biden administration to extend coronavirus eviction protections when Congress didn't act. (It eventually did.) She regularly talks about defunding the police: "Defund the police" is a catchphrase in support of shifting at least some money away from policing and toward social programs. But it's also a politically toxic phrase. Republicans and Democrats attribute its use by Republicans for helping them gain seats in the House in 2020. Why she uses it: Bush acknowledges she's gotten pushback from fellow Democrats in Congress for using that phrase. But her argument is that something radical needs to be done because police shootings aren't declining. Police fatally shot at least 1,055 people in 2021, the highest total since The Washington Post began tracking this in 2015. She's pretty alone in Congress on this. Even if they might agree with Bush's sentiment, most other Democrats avoid talking about defunding the police. And there's another reason Democrats don't want to engage in this now, even after many supported a summer of racial-justice protests: Homicides are on the rise in the United States. | 
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