October 13, 2013

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) told conservative Republicans Thursday to release their grip on the Republican Party and allow the House to vote on a resolution reopening the government. [WATCH VIDEO]

“We need to stop the extreme attitude,” Jackson Lee said on the House floor. “We need to recognize that the poor people of America, the people of America, need this shutdown to stop and the extreme element of the Republican party needs to stand down while Republicans, 20 of them, and Democrats, 200-plus, vote to open the government now.”

She spoke on the 10th day of the partial government shutdown, which Democrats say was created by Republican demands to undermine ObamaCare as part of a 2014 spending resolution.

No one is more opposed to the Affordable Care Act — a.k.a. Obamacare — than the Republican members of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation.

The state’s five GOP reps — Paul Ryan, James Sensenbrenner, Tom Petri, Sean Duffy and Reid Ribble — have repeatedly voted to repeal the landmark bill. All joined the House majority in opposition that led to a partial shutdown of the federal government. Sensenbrenner, for one, has called the law “abominable.”

So what does Sensenbrenner’s office do when constituents seek its assistance getting in on this abomination? Why, assist them, of course.

“Part of our job is to help our constituents with government programs,” says Ben Miller, a spokesman for Sensenbrenner. “So if Obamacare is the law of the land, then our office will help folks if we can.”

Similar sentiments issue from the offices of the state’s other GOP House members and that of Sen. Ron Johnson, who has called Obamacare “the greatest single assault on our freedom in our lifetime.”