I would be interested in putting a poll in the field that asks whether the general public would rather attend a tax policy seminar for a week or get a root canal. If I were a betting man, I would put my money on a significant amount of people electing for the operation. However, a recent debate that revolves around the nation’s corporate tax policy and the calls from the Obama administration for “economic patriotism” deserves attention. 

In an interview with CNBC’s Steve Liesman, President Obama offered his view on tax inversion. Simply put, tax inversion is when companies who have their headquarters in the U.S. either move their base of operations to another country or merge with a foreign company and shift their operations to their home nation. 

Obama stated, “I think most people would say if you’re doing business here, if you’re basically still an American company, but you’re simply changing your mailing address in order to … avoid paying taxes … then you’re really not doing right by the country … and by the American people.” This quote came after he acknowledged “this is basically taking advantage of tax provisions that are technically legal.” Obama and his Treasury Secretary Jack Lew are calling on Congress to close these “loopholes.” They want to end inversions. 

Here is the problem. As Dr. Ron Cohen, founder and CEO of Acorda Therapeutics stressed in response to the president’s interview, the administration is focusing on the symptoms, not the disease. Instead of parading under the guise of economic populism where it may seem politically prudent to paint corporations as obscene profit-seekers, we need to reform the tax code.

The U.S. has the highest corporate tax rate of any nation in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). We come in dead last of 34 member nations with a staggering 39 percent corporate tax rate, according to the 2014 OECD Taxation of Corporate and Capital Income report. Large companies are moving their charters overseas to seek out relief from this tax burden. At this point, one might jump to the conclusion that these corporations are seeking out cheap labor in Indonesia or Malaysia, but this is not the case. Walgreens, an Illinois-based company, feels the pressure from its investors to move operations to Switzerland. Investors are pushing Walgreens to merge with Alliance Boots, a Swiss company. The Swiss corporate tax rate is 21 percent. According to analysts at UBS, Walgreens’s tax rate would be 37.5 percent, but once merging with Alliance Boots it is expected to be 20 percent. According to the same report, this merger would increase earnings by 75 percent. 

Sure, casting companies who relocate to other countries with favorable tax markets as being unpatriotic may be politically expedient, but it ignores reality. As Bethany McLean, a CNBC and Vanity Fair contributor said about the situation, “We live in a world of global markets and very active investors.” These investors have a right to pressure management for profits. 

As Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute points out, the issue should not be focused solely on stopping these tax inversions. Lowering the corporate tax rate would allow the U.S. to become more competitive in global markets and work to bring in businesses to the U.S. while creating jobs and increasing tax revenue. Patch jobs for the current system may halt tax inversions but will not lower the tax rate to increase competitiveness on a global scale. We do not need temporary solutions to fundamental problems. We need to address the situation head on. We need policy that creates more opportunity, and that will happen when we create a more businessfriendly environment.