Phil Mickelson Calls Bogey On Obama's High Taxes: May Abandon US

Championship Golfer Phil Mickelson may follow the lead of Gérard Depardieu and leave his home country because of the harsh tax burden. The lefty golfer, who has won 40 tournaments on the PGA Tour including four majors was interviewed by Sports Columnist Scott Michaux and implied there are major changes coming in his life to counter Obama's oppressive taxes:

Q. When you're asked about Stricker's semi‑retirement, with the political situation the last couple months,blah, blah, blah, what did you mean by that? Do you find it an unsettling time in a way?
PHIL MICKELSON: Well, it's been an interesting offseason. And I'm going to have to make some drastic changes. I'm not going to jump the gun and do it right away, but I will be making some drastic changes.

Q. Meaning leaving from California?
PHIL MICKELSON: I'm not sure.

Q. Moving to Canada?
PHIL MICKELSON: I'm not sure what exactly, you know, I'm going to do yet. I'll probably talk about it more in depth next week. I'm not going to jump the gun, but there are going to be some. There are going to be some drastic changes for me because I happen to be in that zone that has been targeted both federally and by the state and, you know, it doesn't work for me right now. So I'm going to have to make some changes.

Q. Is that a correlation between that and what happened to the Padres?
PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah.

Q. With you?
PHIL MICKELSON: Absolutely.

Q. So why do you say next week? What is going to happen so drastic next week?
PHIL MICKELSON: No, but I'll probably be in the media center and I'll probably be a little more open to it because San Diego is where a lot more things, it's where I live, it's where the Padre thing was a possibility, and it's where my family is. And it just seems like a better fit than right here off of 18 on Palm Springs.

Q. Is it a stance that you are taking because on the one hand, you've made a lot of money, and no matter how much they take out, you are left with a lot of money?
PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah. I'll probably go into it more next year or next week. But if you add up, if you add up all the federal and you look at the disability and the unemployment and the Social Security and the state, my tax rate's 62, 63 percent. So I've got to make some decisions on what I'm going to do.

Q. How do you balance that against the TOUR's retirement plan which by all standards is the best retirement plan in sports?
PHIL MICKELSON: I don't understand. What do you mean?

Q. Well, I mean I understand the 60 percent part of the equation, but in the TOUR's plan, you guys put about as much money aside as you want. It's treated differently under tax laws than most anybody else's tax plans. Where most people can only put away $45,000 or $50,000, you guys can put as much away as you want. And so at the end you guys end up with a much larger pot of gold than most people can.
PHIL MICKELSON: But when it comes out, it's still taxed at the same 62 percent rate.

 Some people vote at the ballot box, others vote with their feet.  As Mickelson implies--why work if you only get to keep 38% of your money?  Some people (who can afford it) will stop working, others may leave the country. But in the end, as usually happens higher tax rates (which the Democrats want to make even higher) lead to lower tax revenue.