Yesterday, Berkshire Hathaway, the investment vehicle of billionaire Warren Buffett, announced it is buying up the remaining shares of railroad company Burlington Northern. It's a big bet on American rail, and a big bet on the American economy. It's also a telling sign of Buffett's belief that Americans aren't quite ready to go green, since almost half of Burlington Northern's cargo last year was coal. We speak to Phillip Longman, senior research fellow at the New America Foundation and author of “The Next Progressive Era: A Blueprint for Broad Prosperity.” Also with us is T.J. Stiles, author of “The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt.”

As the Obama administration and Congress design a blueprint for our next healthcare system, The Takeaway is looking at possible models that are already in place. President Obama often refers to electronic medical records as one way to improve care while cutting costs. That's something the Veterans Administration is already doing. Since the 1970s, the V.A. has digitized its system to coordinate medical care, which now serves more than 5 million veterans. Joining us to talk about what lawmakers can draw from the V.A. is Phillip Longman. He is a Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation and author of Best Care Anywhere: Why VA Health Care is Better Than Yours . He also has an article on Health IT coming out in the July issue of The Washington Monthly. For a practitioner’s perspective we are joined by Peter Ubel. He is a physician and behavioral scientist at the University of Michigan. He has practiced medicine in the VA system for 15 years.

For a different view of the Veteran's Administration's practices, read Walt Bogdanich's article, At V.A. Hospital, a Rogue Cancer Unit, in The New York Times.