First, let me assure you, Mr. Mullin, your salary is, in fact, paid by the American people through their taxes. So, while you not only work for your district, you also work for all of us.

Mullin was stimulated

During his first election run, The Associated Press reported that Mullin, an opponent of the 2009 stimulus law, had actually gotten $370,000 in federal funds from that program. So, some of the taxes he paid were on income from federal appropriations — meaning his constituents even paid for some of the money he sent to Washington.

It must be pretty galling for voters whose median household income is just north of $40,000 a year to elect someone to a $174,000-a-year-job and hear him say he pays his own salary.

Second, Mr. Yoho, you should know that members of Congress don’t work for the president. They may work with him at times, but a big part of their job is to conduct oversight of the president and his agencies. How Yoho graduated from the University of Florida without understanding that is beyond me, but certainly, he should have picked up on that truth at some point between his school days and the day he took his oath of office.

What’s most baffling about these declarations is that these members of Congress get an education in how to do their jobs when they go through freshman orientation, right after they are elected to the House. The Administration Committee has a pretty strong program that goes through the ins and outs of how their offices are set up — including where the money comes from — and the Congressional Research Service teaches classes on how Congress interacts with the other branches of government.