Yes, you read that correctly, Obama has a pay czar or “special master for compensation.”

Kenneth Feinberg will have broad authority over compensation for senior executives and the top 100 earners at American International Group Inc., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., General Motors Corp., GMAC LLC, Chrysler LLC, and Chrysler Financial. All seven companies got what the government calls “exceptional assistance” from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Many of these companies were threatened to take the money by former Treasury Secretary Paulson.

The pay czar will review, reject and even set pay levels with no appeal and the Treasury Department said he will follow certain principles in making his decisions, including whether it rewards risk, allows a firm to remain competitive, is comparable to peers, tied to long-term performance and contributes to the value of the firm.

This is private business we’re talking about here! Obama is demanding Miranda rights for enemy combatants, taking over companies and now controlling compensation.

“We felt that in cases where we’re offering exceptional government assistance that we had a duty to the taxpayer to ensure that, even if the letter of the law had no restriction on overall salary, (LCs emphasis) that there needed to be a review process to ensure that it was neither excessive, inappropriate or oriented to short term risk taking,” said Gene Sperling, a senior counselor to Treasury Secretary Geithner.

The letter of the law requires no restriction but to hell with the law, we are now moving closer to a Totalitarian government.

Geithner outlined his push to reform compensation practices at all firms, including those that didn’t receive bailout funds, but shied away from imposing specific rules. Instead, the Obama administration issued voluntary compensation guidelines that tie pay more closely to long-term performance.

Geithner also said the White House will push legislation giving shareholders more power to vote on executive-pay packages at all firms and improving independence on boardroom compensation committees.

What is the Obama administration doing in the boardroom of companies beyond GM, where they have selected their own team?

“We are not setting forth precise prescriptions for how companies should set compensation, which can often be counterproductive,” Mr. Geithner said in remarks at the Treasury after meeting with compensation experts.

It’s not our imagination. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said it will spend $100 million in an effort to stem the “rapidly growing influence of government over private-sector activity,” in a major new move by the powerful business group to counter the Obama administration’s regulatory agenda.

Chamber president Thomas Donohue said his organization is launching its “Campaign for Free Enterprise” because an “avalanche of new rules, restrictions, mandates and taxes” could “seriously undermine the wealth and job-creating capacity of the nation.”

Obama is attempting to jawbone companies into shifting pay practices while building other controlling schemes to takeover business. Maybe tax cheat Geithner has the power to threaten with a stay at Gitmo or Obama and his ilk are building Gulag’s for their enemies. Indeed!