The $7 billion bailout being foisted upon taxpaying American citizens is big government collectivism. It comes wrapped in legislation that gives birth to authoritarian control of financial markets courtesy of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the current congressional leadership.

Even hyperbolic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi managed to describe it correctly when she pronounced over the weekend, “The Administration has requested that Congress authorize, in very short order, sweeping and unprecedented powers for the Treasury Secretary …”

Here’s how the financial media described Paulson’s initial three-page draft legislative bill as well as the scope of the power transfer: “… short and to the point: authorizing purchases of up to $700 billion in mortgage-related assets at any given time and giving the department sweeping authority for at least two years to carry out the enterprise.”

Make no mistake, the so-called rescue plan is not about saving private enterprise.

It is not about saving homeowners from foreclosure, despite what some politicians would like voters to believe. And, it is not about stabilizing the housing market and the U.S. dollar. The bottom line this bailout is an unprecedented intrusion by government into free markets.

This $700 billion bailout alone places a debt burden of $2,000 for every person in the United States.

This bailout, plus the recent $85 billion bailout of insurance giant AIG, and the $100 billion each seizure of mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is about saving investors who overreached; and, saving those investment firms whose executives failed to perform their fiduciary responsibilities.

All of these bailouts also are about providing cover for both those failed executives and the elected officials who, years ago, planted the toxic policy seeds that sprouted into the sub-prime mortgage debacle. Interestingly, those same bureaucrats who mismanaged their agencies somehow found the skills to manage how to donate vast sums back into the campaigns of the political planters of the original bad seeds.

This bailout also provides an umbrella of cover for many of the appointed bureaucrats who enriched themselves personally while they carried out the policy implementation of spreading toxic seeds, and fertilizing the mortgage marketplace by pressuring mortgage lending entities to dramatically increase the number of mortgage loans to low-income individuals and others, who could not realistically afford to make the required payments.

As a result, the uptick in foreclosures that resulted, on top of the cyclical housing downturn, uncovered the underlying problem where Wall Street and other big investors had been trafficking in sub-prime mortgage securities. Readers of this column were alerted more than a year ago of this growing problem and that, at the time, more than half of the $2 trillion dollars of commercial notes were backed by ‘packaged credit assets’ such as consumer-owed mortgages.

Yet, despite all the warning signs and the realities showing in the credit markets before and during the past year, executives failed to take the actions needed to fulfill their personal fiduciary responsibilities. Perhaps, the opportunity presented for them to squeeze out still more fast bucks was too much of a temptation.

Enter Paulson, Bernanke and the bailouts placed on the backs of hard-working, law-abiding Americans.

Frank Razzano, a former assistant chief trial attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission, notes the Paulson’s plan amounts to “dictatorial power unreviewable by the third branch of government, the courts.” He’s right.

Razzano adds, “We are taking a huge leap of faith.” Right again.

For years, many Americans have lamented that the U.S. was on the slow road to socialism. Frederick Hayek, author of “The Road to Serfdom,” warned us that such a road would lead to tyranny. Suddenly, Americans sense an acceleration that feels like breakneck speed.

If not stopped, the road to serfdom lies just ahead.

Richard Olivastro is a professional member of the National Speakers Association, president of Olivastro Communications, an executive leadership development company. He can be reached at Rich@Olivastro.net or 877-RichSpeaks.