Attorney General Will Not Investigate District Attorney + Congress Avoids Obamacare – Wingin’ It Wednesday

This week on "Wingin' It Wednesday", panelist Carol Ross, Mike Stagg, and Warren Caudle joined "Mornings with Ken and Bernie" to discuss the Attorney General's decision not to investigate allegations of bribery in the office of Lafayette DA Mike Harson as well as congress' efforts to avoid facing Obamacare.

Here's what the panel had to say:

1. Attorney General Buddy Caldwell’s office says it will not investigate allegations of bribery in the office of Lafayette DA Mike Harson even though an investigation by the US Attorney’s office has resulted in three guilty pleas from staff members.  Why do you think the state Attorney General office is not conducting it’s own investigation?

Carol Ross started us off:

I think there were 5 guilty pleas. The timeline on this was really curious because according to published reports the US Attorney went in in February of 2012. Apparently, shortly there after in May of 2012, then assistant DA Keith Stutes submitted his report to the attorney general. It's really curious because the US Attorney sassy the bribery probe had been going on for four years. Is it possible that Mike Harson and Keith Stutes knew nothing about this bribery scandal that was going on for four years according to the US attorney.
I'm not a lawyer, but does the state have laws against bribery and ticket fixing? What does that state investigation say that has not been made public yet

Warren Caudle added:

I think the real question is why the Attorney General is not doing an investigation. Normally when you have a federal investigation you don't have a state investigation going on at the same time on the same issue.
I think the real issue here is that here in Louisiana the district attorney doesn't have to investigate things he doesn't want to. Most of the other states every felony that gets charged has to go to grand jury for them to indite with probable cause, but in Louisiana the district attorney has total control to prosecute who he wants, where he wants, how he wants
If he says, "I'm not going to prosecute my friends for speeding", then that's just the way business is done anyway.

Mike Stagg Concluded:

By surmising the circumstances you'd have to say that Buddy Caldwell has a better relationship with Mike Harson than he does with Bobby Jindal, because as you recall, in January when the US Attorney subpoenaed the records for the CNSI contract nothing came out for three months until The Advocate broke the story.
It turns out that Attorney General Caldwell was shocked to find that there might have been some influence pedaling in the CNSI contract.
They do have a lot of digression. Apparently the Attorney General has decided to use digression with the DA but maybe not with the governor.

2. If Obamacare or the Affordable Health Care Act is so good for the American taxpayer why have waivers been granted for Congress and Congressional staff members?

Mike stated:

This is something that congress, in particularly congressional Republicans insisted on. The rules applied to everyone, then when the times comes that these people have to buy converge through exchanges in their states, which means they have to put up some money on their own, the outcry comes. The difference is currently all their healthcare is paid for by the government and now they'll have to pay for it. It's a shock to them, but I think it's a welcome introduction to the real world.
This is all much to do about nothing. What you're going to see in Louisiana as Blue Cross has said, 96% of the people in Louisiana will have the same rates or lower rates. There's a lot of scare tactics going on and we'll see more disinformation coming out I'm sure.

Warren added:

This is the big argument right now, defunding Obamacare or leaving it like it is. The fact is that I think it is a lot to do about nothing. There's going to be a whole lot of arguing but no winners when this thing is all said and done.
I've heard many speakers say there are some good things about Obamacare, for instance they can't deny you coverage based on preexisting conditions. My point is that if you totally get rid of it, you're also going to get rid of the "can't deny for preexisting conditions" thing. Instead of want to fix the problems they want to chose up sides and throw stones.

Carol stated:

When the Democrats were pushing Obamacare through the congress in 2009, a Senator from Iowa attached an amendment that said it would make the program apply to everyone including congress. The Democrats were so hot to get the bills passed that they agreed to the amendment. Well now that the insurance mandate is coming down like a pile of pricks a number of politicians and their staff are complaining it's unfair that they have to abide by the same mandate.
Now they're not exempt, the problem is they will get generous subsidies to help pay for their insurance.

Now it’s your turn to tell us what you think about today’s Wingin’ It Wednesday topics. Who got it right, who got it wrong, and who was way off? Let us know in the comment section.