By Sandy Fitzgerald | Newsmax 

The Cuban government has blamed the protests that are happening on U.S. sanctions that have made the island nation more poverty-stricken, but Rep. Michael Burgess, who is also a physician, told Newsmax Tuesday that the real reason Cubans are angry is because their own government doesn't want to help them and they are suffering. 

"The sanctions have been in place through multiple administrations, and the Department of Treasury has really put those restrictions into place," the Texas Republican said on Newsmax's "National Report." "The Cuban people are suffering because their government does not want to help them, and that is the sad reality."

Burgess said he's traveled to Cuba twice, once on a medical trip and then again with members of congress looking at Cuban medical facilities, and he called what he saw there "discouraging."

"When you visit that island,  it is truly a tropical paradise but the government has literally ground those poor people (down)," said Burgess. "It continues to repress them for decades and it is so sad. A Cuban showed me his ration book ... can you imagine living with the ration book? Your government sends you a ration book (that says) this is how much rice this is how many slices of bread you're going to get this month? Who wants to live like that?"

Burgess also slammed Democrat lawmakers from his state who flew to Washington, D.C., to avoid Gov. Greg Abbott's special session concerning the state's voting reform legislation.

"You're elected to do a job and you should show up to work to do your job," he said. "Otherwise, why did you run for office? In the United States House of Representatives. I'm in the minority party. I understand how frustrating that is. I understand how many days you're going to wake up and go to work and lose the vote, but at the same time, that's their job. That's what they signed up for. That's what they ran for." 

Democrats have left the state before over "squabbles" they have had with a GOP majority, he added, but "it solves nothing" and eventually the work gets done, but "it's just harder and more acrimonious."

Meanwhile, there were "things" that happened in the 2020 election that both Republicans and Democrats can't have been happy about, said Burgess, and it's good for states to tackle those problems. 

"That's what the Constitution says should happen," he said. "The state should make those laws, not the federal government, which (Speaker) Nancy Pelosi is trying to do. That would be the bigger problem if the federal government said hey, we don't like the way you're running things in your state. We're going to run it for you. That would be the problem."