Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum (@AAF), issued the following statement:

“Yesterday the Treasury announced proposed regulations ostensibly designed to reduce the incentives for so-called corporate inversions. The disappointing proposals stand in sharp contrast to Secretary Lew’s repeated assertions that Treasury does not have the authority to stop inversions through executive actions. The U.S. needs a new tax code that provides incentives to locate, invest, and expand in this country, and Treasury and the White House are failing the leadership challenge of delivering genuine international tax reform.

“Worse – inflated rhetoric aside – these proposals have nothing to do with inversions. Instead, they are administrative attacks that raise the cost of capital for foreign-headquartered firms who have chosen to invest in the United States. At a time of chronic slow growth and poor productivity, it is unwise to build a regulatory wall against those companies who choose to invest, hire and expand in the United States.”