Who better to invoke than President Theodore Roosevelt when you're talking about breaking up the oil companies? Roosevelt, of course, was famously known as the "trust buster," whose administration brought the antitrust lawsuit that led to the breakup of the Standard Oil Company in 1911.
"We are here today because, in the words of Teddy Roosevelt, 'We demand that big business give people a square deal,' " New York Senate Charles Schumer, Democrat, said at a May 23 hearing.
Roosevelt once said, Schumer related, "Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action. . . If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big."
But talk comes first, and in the days preceding the hearing of the Joint Senate-House Economic Committee, which Schumer chairs, the committee's press releases actually lost a little steam, moving from one headlined "Breaking up the oil companies," to the positively wonkish, "Shall we begin to examine the rash of oil company mergers in the last 20 years? Consolidation raises serious economic, consumer and energy security questions."
As for acting big, Schumer told the hearing, "My instinct tells me that a reconsideration of oil company mergers in the last two decades may be in order." Hardly a fiery call to arms, but don't underestimate Schumer's ability to stir things up, particularly with gasoline prices and oil company profits at record highs.
Schumer did not indicate who should reconsider oil company mergers (the Federal Trade Commission, which approved the mergers in the first place? The Justice Department? Congress?); or which mergers should be reconsidered (Exxon and Mobil? Chevron and Texaco? Conoco and Phillips?); or how you unscramble the egg, beyond asking: "Should we begin serious exploration of whether or not to undo some of these mergers?" The committee did not respond to requests for clarification.
"It's time to consider acting big," Schumer said. But for the moment, he settled for populist rhetoric: "Today, American families are getting a raw deal, while oil companies make out like the robber barons of Roosevelt's time."
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