As we watch the fundamental tenets of American government disintegrate around us (no, you’re being dramatic), the fervor we’ve seen in town hall meetings across the country is still going strong. People are showing up to tell their elected officials exactly what they’re thinking of the job being done.
In the case of Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, his constituents tried to remind him that he works for them, and that not only did they elect him, but that as taxpayers, they pay his salary. Apparently, that’s a concept that doesn’t compute for him.
Mullin was recorded responding that that’s, to use his eloquent word, “bullcrap.” He told voters, “You say you pay for me to do this? That’s bullcrap. I pay for myself”
As Mullin sees it, his own taxes pay his salary. He just ran for office out of the goodness of his heart, and those constituents are just, I suppose, being ungrateful for this magnanimous favor he’s doing them.
I paid enough taxes before I got here and continue to through my company to pay my own salary. This is a service. No one here pays me to go. I do it as an honor and a service.
This is a service for me, not a career. And I thank god this isn’t how I make my living.
Wow. First of all, I didn’t know we got to pick and choose exactly what our taxes go to. I would also like my taxes to go back into my own salary, but short of that, I guess I’ll pick the arts, education, and that Title X reimbursement of health clinics Trump just eliminated.
Mullin’s company that he mentioned is actually multiple companies under the umbrella of Mullin Plumbing, which he inherited from his father. (Fun fact: that company took $370,000 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009–a stimulus program which Mullin called a “horrible waste of tax dollars.” ‘Cause perspective and self-awareness clearly aren’t this guy’s strongest suits.)
Apparently the already wealthy Mullin pays so much in taxes (thanks, Obama), he’s already paid back his own six-figure government salary. His spokesperson reiterated that his constituents aren’t giving him enough credit for this “service,” and that he “is not, nor does he ever aspire to be, a career politician.” Rather, he only wants to be a “career legislator.”
So, despite working in politics, he doesn’t want to be a politician. And he wants to pick where his salary comes from, as if I could decide which of you readers bring in the exact traffic that makes up my paycheck, and which of you don’t?
Can someone please tell him that’s not how jobs work? Or taxes. Or government. Or anything at all.
(via The Hill, Salon, featured image: Wikimedia Commons)
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