Columnist: Will Obama be led by far left?

Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, writing in The Philadelphia Inquirer, is anxiously awaiting to see how Presdident-elect Barack Obama will govern.

Will Obama move to the center and represent all Americans or will he be led to the far left by the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid?

From Santorum's column:

If he is led, our economy will struggle under greater taxes on investors and higher-income workers. Government would take ownership of automakers. Federal domestic spending would explode. Employees of small businesses would get Medicaid-like government health insurance, paid for by taxing their employers.

Such an Obama would reduce productivity, slow economic growth and increase unemployment. He would sign bills to eliminate the secret ballot in union elections, raise the minimum wage, require businesses to provide paid family medical leave, and legalize millions of illegal immigrants.

Energy prices would rise and remain chronically high as offshore drilling was banned again. A climate bill would hand the government control over how much carbon dioxide businesses could emit, imposing heavy taxes on those that used fossil fuels.

We would go from offense to defense in the war against jihadists. We would go from fighting on their soil to fighting on ours, because Obama would withdraw our troops from Iraq, move more into Afghanistan, and close Guantanamo, releasing many of its prisoners. He would sign agreements with hostile governments that we alone would honor, allow Iran to detonate a nuclear weapon, cut the military budget, and halt implementation of a missile-defense system.

After a decade of decline, the number of abortions would again climb. They would be paid for by federal tax dollars, and restrictions such as parental consent and the partial-birth-abortion ban would be repealed with the Freedom of Choice Act.

Read the full column at the newspaper's Web site.