House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Explains the Health Care Reform Effort

From Nancy Pelosi 4/6/10

Yesterday, Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, visited The Commonwealth Club of California and was in conversation with Club President/CEO Dr. Gloria Duffy. A crowd of about 450 in the Mark Hopkins Hotel ballroom in San Francisco listened to Pelosi discuss the challenges of getting a health-care reform bill through Congress, upcoming priorities for Congress (including financial sector regulation, immigration reform, the deficit, and more), and the possibilities of bipartisan cooperation in the hyper-polarized nation's capital (she thinks it's possible on an issue-by-issue basis).

Presidential Transitions

As President-Elect Barack Obama moves with unusual speed to select and present the cabinet for his incoming administration, a great deal of attention is being focused on his possible and actual choices.

Today, Obama presented his economic team to the country. In coming days, we expect to hear about his foreign and domestic policy teams. Clues about the team and its goals can be found at the transition team's web site.

To provide some perspective on transitions past and present, we present Commonwealth Club President and CEO Dr. Gloria C. Duffy's most recent "InSight" column from The Commonwealth magazine. The column, called "Transitions," explains why a slow transition can present a danger to the nation. For a full-sized image of the column, click on the picture to the right of this posting.