On Monday Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew announced a series of measures the Obama administration will be taking to discourage U.S. companies from using mergers with foreign companies to reduce their corporate taxes. The measures like so many taken by the Obama administration show just how little a grasp it has on how free enterprise works.

Corporations make decisions all the time for the simple reason that the way to increase profits is by increasing revenue and/or cutting expenses. It could be the acquisition of a competitor to grow market share, the rightsizing of human resources to control costs, the consolidation of distribution to increase efficiency, etc. It’s Econ 101 and the underpinning of a capitalist system.

A company seeking to reduce its tax rate is using but another arrow in the quiver. To demonize and vilify corporations for it is a political hatchet job at best and economic ineptitude at worst.

Individuals undertake similar steps for similar reasons. We seek to increase income by investing in our educations to better our job opportunities. We seek to cut costs by comparison shopping. Commonplace tactics such as refinancing our mortgages to cut costs are analogous to the “inversion.”

Are individuals vilified for taking these steps? Of course not. So why do we vilify corporations?

The model for increasing tax revenues is The Tax Reform Act of 1986 put forth by the Regan administration. It’s an approach Apollo has advocated for years. Cutting tax rates and broadening the tax base is what’s needed. True tax reform. Unless and until our “leadership” embraces this we’ll continue to see actions like those proposed on Monday – actions tantamount to covering a bullet would with a BAND-AID®.