WASHINGTON — If the GOP loses control of the House in the November elections — as most handicappers predict — one likely outcome is that Democrats will use their newfound power to demand President Donald Trump's tax returns.

And two Texans, one Democrat and the other Republican, are at the forefront of reminding voters of that fact.

Austin Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, has been beating the drum this month that ascendant Democrats would lean on an obscure law to request the tax documents that could open up Trump's finances to unprecedented scrutiny.

"With a new Congress, we will hold Trump to Nixon standard," he said in a tweet this month, referring to former President Richard Nixon. "Even Nixon invited Congress to review his returns, explaining, 'People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.'"

But Houston-area Rep. Kevin Brady, the House Ways and Means Committee's GOP chairman, has responded by raising alarm over his rivals' eagerness to "weaponize" the tool.

"Once #Democrats abuse this law to make public @realDonaldTrump tax returns, what stops them from targeting other Americans tax returns for political purposes? Like yours," he wrote on Twitter this month, adding the hashtag #YouRNext.

Trump's a self-made myth, not a self-made man. And, as I told @MSNBC, GOP covered up & blocked all my amendments to obtain his tax returns. "In Jan, if the American people support a new Congress that will engage in oversight—not just overlook—then we don’t even need a subpoena." pic.twitter.com/Ydnoy0bJsx — Lloyd Doggett (@RepLloydDoggett) October 3, 2018

The president's tax returns are unlikely to sway the midterm elections one way or the other.

But at a time when this year's election stakes are filled with unknowns, what-ifs and a heavy dose of hyperbole, the prospect that a Democrat-controlled House would use a 1924 law to seek Trump's returns from the Internal Revenue Service stands out as a fairly concrete consequence.

Trump's finance intrigue

Especially since Trump's finances have been an object of intrigue ever since he launched his presidential bid.

The billionaire said during the White House race that he would release his tax returns, just like every major presidential candidate has done since 1976. But he still has not followed through on that promise, at times blaming the IRS for an ongoing audit of his returns.

Interest in Trump's tax returns again spiked this month when The New York Times published an 18-month investigation accusing Trump of fraud and other "dubious tax schemes."

Trump, responding on Twitter, dismissed the report as a "very old, boring and often told hit piece on me." But Democrats seized on the account as evidence that Congress should use its authority to peek at the president's tax returns.

"Donald Trump is a self-made myth, not a self-made man," Doggett said recently on MSNBC. "We would know a lot more about it had his little Republican enablers in Congress not been protecting him and covering up his tax returns."

https://t.co/rYFK394hGR via @WSJ Once #Democrats abuse this law to make public @realDonaldTrump tax returns, what stops them from targeting other Americans tax returns for political purposes? Like yours. #YouRNext #PelosiEnemiesList — Kevin Brady for Congress (@bradyfortexas) October 4, 2018

Tax code allows request

The tax code makes clear that the House Ways and Means Committee can request the tax documents of the president or anyone else for confidential review.

The same power is also vested in the Senate Finance Committee, which is that chamber's tax-writing panel, and the Joint Committee on Taxation. But political prognosticators give Democrats a much lower chance of winning back the Senate.

Democrats like Doggett have prodded Brady over the last several months to request Trump's tax documents, citing the need to examine the real estate mogul's foreign business ties and study whether the president gained from the sweeping tax overhaul he signed into law last year.

But Brady, who hails from The Woodlands, has declined to do so.

Fishing expedition?

The House panel's "authority to request and make public any individual's tax return is a powerful oversight tool to be used not for political fishing expeditions but to properly administer the tax code," he has said.

1 / 2Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, has accused Democrats of weaponizing a congressional oversight tool. He said that the House Ways and Means Committee's "authority to request and make public any individual's tax return is a powerful oversight tool to be used not for political fishing expeditions but to properly administer the tax code." (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)(Evan Vucci / AP) 2 / 2Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, has been vocal in pledging that Democrats would request President Donald Trump's tax returns if they win back the House. "Donald Trump is a self-made myth, not a self-made man," he said. (Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP)(Ricardo B. Brazziell / AP)

Democrats wouldn't need the GOP's permission if they win back the House. And Doggett has joined Rep. Richard Neal, the tax committee's top Democrat; House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and others in making clear that they would make the request.

"We'll get the returns," Doggett said.

That pledge has drawn scorn from Brady, who's accused Democrats of abusing an oversight tool.

"Most people don't care about the president's tax returns," he has told news outlets of late, turning instead to the GOP's $1.5 trillion tax revamp. "They care about their own."

It's a bit murky what would happen next if the Democrats do indeed win the House and request Trump's tax returns, particularly since the action could spark a lengthy legal battle.

The request for the president's tax returns would be for a confidential review. But if the House Ways and Means Committee gets the documents, the panel could then vote to release some or all of the trove to the full House, effectively making them public.

Then all bets would be off.