Treasury Secretary Jack Lew called for a “new sense of economic patriotism.” Lew calls for 'economic patriotism'

The Obama administration late Tuesday called on Congress to immediately pass legislation to block U.S.-based multinational companies from moving their headquarters overseas in order to get a lower tax rate.

In a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Treasury Secretary Jack Lew called for a “new sense of economic patriotism” in which U.S.-based companies are no longer allowed to do “inversion” transactions only for the purposes of changing their tax domicile.


Several such transactions have been proposed recently including by U.S. drug makers Abbvie and Mylan. Lew wants legislation to be retroactive to May to block such transactions.

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He again called for full corporate tax reform to lower the top U.S. rate, which at 35 percent is higher than many other countries. But he said Congress should move to block inversions until that happens.

House Democrats have pushed for legislation limiting inversions, led by top Ways and Means Committee Democrat Sandy Levin of Michigan. Wyden, however, has been more cautious saying at times that he would prefer to tackle it with full scale tax reform, which remains a long ways off.