When a company decides to move its headquarters overseas, we hear politicians criticize the move but ignore the reason they moved. The latest source of political complaints came when Johnson Controls decided to merge with Tyco. Hillary Clinton called the merger “outrageous. Bernie Sanders is calling the executives “corporate deserters.”

The editors at the Wall Street Journal once again tried to explain in simple English why companies are doing this. The politicians who denounce these companies are also the ones who have maintained the corporate tax code that is the reason for the executives to take such actions.

Tyco has U.S. headquarters in New Jersey, but the company is legally established in Cork, Ireland. Johnson Controls will now move its legal headquarters from Wisconsin to Ireland. There is a very good reason for this. The U.S. federal corporate income tax rate is 35 percent. The corporate tax rate in Ireland is 12.5 percent. Johnson Controls estimates that they will save roughly $150 million a year.

The Wall Street Journal editors put it this way: “A CEO obliged to act in the best interests of shareholders cannot ignore this competitive reality. The merger means that Johnson Controls will have more money to invest back in the U.S. because the income it earns overseas would not be subject to the U.S. tax rate.”

None of this seems to make any sense to many of the candidates running for president. They should be proposing that we reform the tax code in America so that we are more competitive with the rest of the world. Instead they are proposing various schemes to punish companies and their executives for making wise economic decisions.

You don’t need a degree in economics to know this is a bad idea. It will force more companies to leave this country for more favorable economic circumstances.