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GOP lawmaker whines about his six-figure salary, votes for SNAP cuts

Rep. Phil Gingrey is unhappy with his six-figure Congressional salary.

Rep. Phil Gingrey is unhappy with his six-figure Congressional salary.

The remarks came during a closed-door conference meeting, where Republicans were discussing Obamacare exemptions, as the National Review reported:

The Georgia Republican, whose latest personal financial-disclosure forms show his net worth is at least $3 million, had little sympathy for lawmakers and even less for staff.Capitol Hill aides, he said “may be 33 years old now and not making a lot of money. But in a few years they can just go to K Street [the Washington, D.C., shorthand for becoming a lobbyist] and make $500,000 a year. Meanwhile I’m stuck here making $172,000 a year.”

Stuck? Making six figures? With a net worth of $3 million? The salary alone is more than triple than median income in America, which comes in at just over $50,000 a year according to the latest Census data. After complaining about his paltry salary, Gingrey then joined 216 other Republicans in voting to slash food stamps by nearly $40 billion dollars.

This is not the only time the Georgia Republican's comments have gotten him in trouble. He inspired a round of critics back in January when he defended Rep. Todd Akin's comments about "legitimate rape."

"When he said legitimate rape versus non-legitimate rape, I don't find anything so horrible about that," Gingrey said. "But then he went on and said that in a situation of rape, of a legitimate rape, a woman's body has a way of shutting down so the pregnancy would not occur. He's partly right on that."

And just a few months ago, Gingrey was slammed for suggesting that schools should teach children "traditional" gender roles.

“Maybe part of the problem is we need to go back into the schools at a very early age, maybe at the grade school level, and have a class for the young girls and have a class for the young boys and say, you know, this is what’s important,” he said.

“You know, this is what a father does that is may be a little, a little different--maybe a little better than the talent that mom has in a certain area and same things for the young girls…This is what a mom does and this is what’s important from the standpoint of that union, which we call marriage,” he continued.

The comments even earned him some critics over at Fox News. No word yet on how they feel about his salary.