En masse, Americans are unaware the House of Representatives passed the single largest tax increase in American history on June 26. The bill is now headed for the Senate. The Waxman Markey Bill is a greenhouse gas emissions tax that passed by a narrow margin of 219-212. Not one Congressman admitted to reading the entire 1,000-page bill, or the subsequent 300-page addendum added the day before the vote.

The Waxman Markey Bill is essentially the buying and selling of emissions permits. It establishes a new market of buying, selling and trading carbon allowances. It is something the Democrats have been trying to accomplish since the inception of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997.

^[1]In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle on January 17, 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama stated, “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” Further recognizing that industry would not absorb these costs, he went on, “They (the energy industry) would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money; they will pass that on to consumers.” Industry analysts and third-party think tanks have estimated additional energy costs of $700 to $1,400 per family, per year, and no one on the left is disputing these numbers.

The bill is a brilliantly conceived scheme to establish an entirely new industry, with an entirely new tax opportunity for the government. Given the current economy, the joblessness, and anti-tax environment foreshadowed by Californians, Obama and Congress fully understand they cannot increase traditional tax sources such as income tax; therefore, it’s time to concoct a new one.

However, the piste de résistance is the bill itself. It does little or nothing to actually reduce carbon emissions. The bill calls for a 5 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020. Even most global warming advocates further agree it is globally insignificant, as the real emissions culprits–China, Brazil, India, and many developing nations–are producing vast amounts of CO2. China surpassed the U.S. last year in output, yet is doing nothing to reduce its emissions. In fact, pollution in China is staggeringly high and is on an aggressive march upward.

Since this cap and trade bill doesn’t truly reduce emissions output in a meaningful manner, the only logical explanation remaining is that the bill is a new tax, a way for those with an enormous lobbying contingent to become much wealthier.

Related Links: More politics ^[2] | More opinion ^[3]

Many of the con artists are Democrats in Washington who have already invested heavily into these companies, knowing they were about to spawn a new industry with new money making opportunities. The corruption in Washington is apparent, as politicians such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi have pre-invested into cap and trade companies. If this was an existing private industry, this would be considered illegal trading. Pelosi would be investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for insider trading and using her influence to start the entire industry in the first place. Al Gore also stands to make hundred of millions with a carbon credit-tracking software company he started.

If I were a true global warming environmentalist, I would be outraged that the bill has little or no scientific impact on carbon dioxide output. It simply creates a new tax. Americans are being conned by a few who stand to profit handsomely by the very industry they have created, and they do so without any conscientious or moral turpitude whatsoever.

Disturbingly, pop culture’s tentacles have latched onto the American soul and have become a higher priority than the single largest tax increase in U.S. history. The Union-Tribune dedicated almost 800 percent more space on its front page on Saturday, June 27, to the death of Michael Jackson than it did to this new tax. The coincidental death of Jackson was a perfect cover for the single largest tax increase on Americans.

When gas prices went up to $5 per gallon last year, Obama stated, “I think that I would have preferred a gradual adjustment.” Apparently, he wished the prices would have increased more slowly, so as not to precipitate the outrage Americans were showing and the hit to the American pocketbook. He never denounced the price increase in the first place. That was a clarion call to the oil industry to raise prices more slowly this time, and that he would not stand in the way.

We are currently seeing that effect as the prices at the pump outpace the actual market price for a barrel of oil. Lest we not forget, higher gasoline prices catapulted the world into the current economic abyss. Higher gasoline prices translate into larger revenues and profits for the oil companies, which in turn convert into more taxes feeding Washington’s coiffeurs. While Exxon Mobile makes between 25 and 35 cents per gallon in profits, Washington D.C. makes approximately $1.40 per gallon in total taxes on gasoline when gas is at $3 per gallon. In 2007, the U.S. Government collected $40 billion in corporate tax from Exxon Mobile alone.

The Democrat-controlled U.S. government has found a new way to tax Americans. They have done so rather stealthily, using science that has not had enough debate. As with the TARP funds and the stimulus bill, Congress is moving at an unprecedented pace, taking advantage of Americans while we are still trying to catch our breath in this economy.

America, it’s time to realize what higher energy prices and the cap and trade bill truly are– trillions of dollars for the federal government, on the back of every American, rich or poor. It is nothing more and nothing less. Follow the money.

Steve Hunyar is the author of America the Disposable; The Culture War During the Era of Apathy ^[4] and host of the radio program The East County Underground ^[5]. To contact Steve, please email him at steveh(a)my1079.com

This column originally appeared in San Diego News Room ^[6], an SDNN media partner.