Political Quotes

“a key principle of economic competition today is that one big merger begets another. Known as copycat mergers, these deals are made when the companies that did not merge first felt forced to copy the initial merger. If those left behind do not merge, then they just can't keep up with the Joneses. This morning, I am going to focus for a few minutes on competition in the airline industry. I want to begin by saying that when it comes to copycat airline mergers, this country has reached the point where there are virtually no more cats. This weekend, Americans opened their newspapers to learn that Delta Airlines, the nation's third largest carrier, and Continental, have begun merger discussions. The Associated Press says that Delta and Continental don't even really want to merge. But you guessed it--they say other major airline mergers might drive them to it. The latest round of airline merger reports comes on the heels of the proposed United-U.S. Airways merger and American's proposed deals with TWA and United. In my opinion, if nothing is done in the face of these proposed airline mergers, our country is headed down a runway of no return. If this lineup of mergers takes off, it will destroy the last remnants of competition in the airline history.”