Debbie Wasserman Schultz: “Can I ask you a question, Mr. Delahunt, again because you have more direct experience with this than I do? My…”

“Can I ask you a question, Mr. Delahunt, again because you have more direct experience with this than I do? My understanding is that the oil companies, they do not own the areas of the gulf and the other places that they drill for oil. The Federal Government sells them essentially, through payment of taxes, the rights to drill; that these are essentially public lands, whether they are in the Gulf of Mexico or wherever they are drilling, I mean whether it is Texas or any portion. I do not believe any of the area is private land, any of the significant area. So when we forgive the oil companies taxes, we are basically giving away the ownership rights to a private company that the government owns and just saying, here, take our oil stores for free. Is that right?”