Why the Obama administration considers that “economic patriotism” is beyond me.

Via Politico:

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.

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.