"The Takeaway"--what's that supposed to mean? We have the Brian Lehrer/Leonard Lopate/Ch. Rose shows and we have Meet the Press, Sunday Morning and evn the garden hotline and food talk, . . .but what to make of something called "The Takeaway"? Whenever I tune in I spend less time listening to the show & moe time contemplating what in the world the creators of th show had in mind when they said, "Aha! Let's give the show a totally vague, totally opaque name . . . ."

Larry for "Listener"

Yes, the Republicans "suggested" lots!

They just didn't "produce" anything valuable!

They didn't want to compromise, and took their ball and went home. So they really can't complain that they didn't have a say in this.

I wish to add; those Republican proposals that I mentioned previously are not in conflict with much of anything in the bill that was passed.

So Democrats and their media supporters like John Hockenberry cannot be heard to say, "Well, the majority rules, and the majority in Congress had to make decisions about what went into a bill..."

The fact is, the Democrats, playing to their own special-interest paymasters like the trial lawyers, had the chance to pass the bill that they wanted AND include cost-reduction measures like medical malpractice reform and health savings accounts. The Democrats didn't do that, because they would not compromise even when it did not interfere with other goals they had included in draft legislation. The Democrats wanted their bill. They negotiated, but only with those fellow Democrats whom they needed in order to reach a bare 216+2 majority.

Not that any of this would ever be given a fair hearing on The Takeaway. There are only so many minutes that The Takeaway's producers and hosts have, in which to churn out Obama talking-points.

I actually lost count of the number of times in today's broadcast that John Hockenberry suggested to The Takeaway's listeners that the choice in healthcare was between "doing nothing" and "doing something."

What a false choice. That is not news reporting; that is propaganda. It is a lie; a hateful and misleading lie for average listeners.

The Republicans did not suggest "doing nothing," Mr. Hockenberry. The Republicans suggested national inter-state competitive markets for health insurer competition. The Republicans suggested medical malpractice reform, to slow the costs of defensive medicine and meritless cases. The Republicans suggested the expansion of health savings accounts, which have proven, where they have been implemented, to be among the greatest cost-savings measures that anyone has yet discovered in health care management.

So when John Hockenberry says, that "the Republican message was 'do nothing'," it was and is a lie. And it is a lie that John Hockenberry repeats numerous times on numerous broadcasts of The Takeaway.