Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The Arkansas Times and Little Rock Public Radio.

And hello again, everyone, and thanks very much for being with us.

Its origins date to World War One or its end.

And a century and some years later, the nation come Monday will observe Veterans Day yet again.

It's a time to not only thank those women and men who wore the uniform, but to assess the issues surrounding military veterans and how and to what extent those issues are being addressed.

Well, in a moment, we'll speak with three individuals for whom veterans issues are their work.

First, the election just concluded, an election that set the nation and indeed the world on its ear.

There were rather fewer surprises on the state and local level, but the balloting in Arkansas still demands some analysis.

So to do that, a pair of old friends, We're joined by Hal Bass, emeritus professor of political science at Washington Baptist University, and Skip Rutherford, the dean emeritus of the Clinton School of Public Service and a founder of the Central Arkansas Political Animals Club.

Just thanks for coming in.

I'll start with you.

It's over the counter.

I mean, we may not know who controls at this particular moment of the US House of Representatives.

Pretty much everything else around here has been settled.

What's your take away?

It was a wave election, a moral ripple in a big wave, but a real consistent pattern of improving support for Republican presidential candidate across the across the country.

Now, in in state after state, county after county, you saw perceptible increases in the Republican support in what what looked to be a very, very close election, tipped into a close but decisive election outcome.

Yeah, Skip, we went right.

The country and the state.

That's right.

And you got to give the Trump Organization credit.

I mean, let's just give credit where it is due in the fact that he captured the mood of the people, which was an economic anxiety.

He he his grievances became people's grievances.

And he and he and he ran a very good structured campaign, particularly in turning out working class and and younger male voters.

He did a good job on that.

But I would also say I did agree with with with Hal.

You know, when you look at wave and landslide elections, I think back to 1972 when when Richard Nixon beat George McGovern and McGovern carried one state in the District of Columbia.

And then you got to 84, when Reagan beat Walter Mondale and Mondale carried his home state in the District of Columbia, This was a significant election in 2024, but it wasn't a rout.

He won women and did well in the suburbs, despite all despite all of the rhetoric on his part and that of his associates, he did something that reflects Skip's point about Trump captured the mood of the country, and the Democratic campaign.

Just missed that.

Missed the boat.

Yeah, and I think if you if you read the great book that Agee Maxwell wrote about about Southern politics and particularly Southern women of Fayetteville.

Yeah.

At the University of Arkansas, you know, a lot of women relate to the policies of President Trump beyond just the abortion issue, economic issue, the grievance we are rural, we are forgotten, we are poor.

And people went in and quite frankly, the cost of a carton of eggs, you know, offset.

I'm worried about our democracy.

Yeah, Ukraine.

And it was way down.

And I do think the gender gap and it's been around since 19 1980 is most clear on the female Democratic side for college educated women.

And I think there are a lot of women who are not college educated and do not relate to politics and culture the same way that the Democrats campaign anticipated.

Yeah, and you're exactly right.

I agree with that.

The the other thing about this election that a lot of people are not talking about is that and that they're still counting votes, Steve.

So, yeah, it's going to take a couple of weeks for all these votes to come in, but President Trump is probably going to get at near or barely exceed the level that he got in in 2020, somewhere in the 74, 75 million range.

Vice President Harris is probably going to get 70, 71, 72 somewhere in that range and maybe lower than that.

President Biden got 81 million votes four years ago, 81 million votes.

Now, President Trump picked up a lot of of Biden voters.

And I think Kamala Harris picked up a significant number of Republican women, particularly on the abortion issue in certain states.

But the real story of this election is probably in the end, 10 million people who supported Biden didn't vote, didn't didn't go out, did not it may not have switched to Trump.

Some did, but they didn't vote.

The notion that the vote of turnout in this election dropped way back.

And so when you're counting, I mean, Joe Biden got 81 million votes, the most votes in any presidential campaign by any one person, highest number of presidential votes ever this year, as popular and as strong as Donald Trump was, he's not going to reach that number.

So a lot of people, unfortunately, who could have voted didn't vote.

Well, we don't know about again, we don't know about the House yet, but certainly the senior senator from Arkansas, Al Gore, is going to get a Chaves ranking member already on AG.

But once again, Arkansas will have a chairman of the AG Committee and there could be some other shifts.

John Boozman is the ranking member and he will presumably assume the chairmanship of the Agriculture and Attrition and Forestry.

Blanche Lincoln's Yeah.

Old, old chair come, come January and he's got work to do because the farm bill is overdue.

Yeah.

One thing about I think about Senator Bozeman is and about the farm bill, it is not it's one of those pieces of legislation having worked for Senator David Pryor when he was on the Senate Agriculture Committee.

It's one of those pieces of legislation that is not DNR as much as it is crop and other thing.

I mean, so the Midwest farmers, the fruit growers in the South, the cotton farmers, the chicken producers, it's a complicated mix to bring regional people together.

Less partizan.

John Boozman I think will do a good job getting that done.

Fair to say that Sarah Huckabee Sanders has had she's emboldened.

I mean she's yeah, she's, she's stronger than she was yesterday.

And yesterday she was stronger than, you know, no question.

She solidified her power and she's got two new Supreme Court seats to fill.

Plus, she'll have a secretary of state appointment and come January and another appointments get.

Yeah, I agree.

I think I think number one and she's probably also in the position how being a washed out guy that she's probably in the position that if she wanted a position in the Trump administration she could have it.

I think it's questionable whether she wants it, but I think she could shortly.

But I think the real issue is that, you know, she's got she earned a lot of points on the road by supporting candidates in long term, whether that is now or in the future, that will help her.

Yeah, she's known in the community, the political community, so to speak.

Well, we had to we also mentioned that that the ballot issue that had a lot of us in particularly in the last week, was the casino thing and next door, Polk County and I ran into so many people who said, I don't have a dog in that.

I don't understand it.

But as it turns out, you know, the thing passed, Skip and well, look, I think the real question is it most people really didn't understand the key thing that obviously in my opinion, because I didn't have any idea how it's going to come out, I had no really strong sense because most people can and say, what is that amendment?

What does that do?

I think the local control issue was probably the factor of paying.

You know, local folks should have a say in whether there was a casino in their particular county.

I think that may have been the factor.

But, Steve, the margin surprised me.

Well, I think more generally that in these ballot measures, which do not have party labels attached to them, they're simply going to be by definition, more unpredictable in their in their outcomes.

Party is such a defining force in voting behavior.

When you take it away, you do keep folks like me.

You try to figure out why these things happen.

Yeah, you take the easy and obvious answer away from us here and make a much tougher call to make.

Look to the general, to some Democrats to pick up one seat.

But it is still a Republican capital, state capital.

Yeah, and it is.

I think that what you really have and and in Arkansas is a Trump's got he increased his vote it became Arkansas red became even more red as it has in every Trump election.

But you still have that strong Democratic base in Pulaski and Jefferson Counties, which keeps the party viable.

And you are picking up something.

I think the the the dying of Gonzalez's win in northwest Arkansas.

While only one may be an indication of northwest Arkansas, it's moving more or at least portions of northwest Arkansas moving more to purple.

Yeah, the margins were lower in Washington County.

Yeah.

Then statewide in the other counties around around the state.

Yeah.

I want to mention to because we covered it last weekend, it is Arkansas's capital city, the sales tax vote failed again skipped.

This is twice on on the mayor's watch.

Yeah and again it you are dealing in an environment where economic uncertainty toppled kamala Harris.

45% of the people who voted in exit polls leaving the national election.

Steve said i'm worse off economically now that I were four years.

I was four years ago.

So I think the economic considerations had a big thing to do with it.

I think the second thing that had something to do with it was it looked like it.

I don't think they ran a very good campaign pro.

I don't think I think the con ran a much better campaign.

But it looked like you had a Christmas tree in every city.

Director put an ornament out there and said, this is what I want for my zone.

The key thing about that is North Little Rock voted against a school millage.

So that people were not in a tax friendly mood in this election.

Does it impact Mayor Scott?

I don't think so, because when you look at the city board election, Antoine Phillips got 59% of the vote in that race.

And Frank Scott's popularity is not necessarily linked with a tax increase or decrease.

Yeah, how I gave you the final word.

Sales tax are a tough sell and we we got to end it there because we're simply out of time, guys thanks for coming in Be back said yeah that was quick.

Well of course it was smart guys lots of fun.

We'll be back in a moment.

We are back.

Veterans Day 2020 for some hours of entirely appropriate ceremony and remembrance.

And let us set the stage for that now.

We are joined by Secretary Kendall Penn of the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs and from the central Arkansas veterans health care system, Dr. Jennifer Anderson, chief of staff, and Dr. Matthew Goodwin.

Welcome to all of you, Mr. Secretary.

We'll start with you.

Well, first of all, let's let's just jump forward to Monday.

You've got a big ceremony planned.

I mean, yes, sir.

Monday at 11:00.

So the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

And keeping with the tradition of Armistice Day, we are holding the state Veterans Day ceremony at the Northern Rock Veterans Home over by Fort Roots.

Our keynote speaker is going to be General Bridges, the new adjutant general for the Arkansas National Guard.

We're got an opportunity to to bring in both the veterans that we have living there at the home, as well as the veterans over at Fort Worth to be a part of our ceremony.

Really looking forward to it.

And we hope to have a large turnout from the public.

Well, you know, we kind of our debt maybe to the French army or at least the Treaty of Versailles anyway, or the little city of ours.

Yes, sir.

So, you know, there for a long time it was called Armistice Day.

And then after the conclusion of World War Two and the Korean War, the Congress started looking for ways to honor the service of all veterans.

And so the name of the holiday was changed to Veterans Day.

Yeah.

11.

11.

11.

Yes, sir.

All right.

On to the business of health care.

We have multiple well, at least two major agencies, right?

Serving serving the vets in Arkansas.

Yes, sir.

So my colleagues here are with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the federal agency.

Ma'am, from the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs, the state agency and responsible.

Responsible for veteran issues and policy.

Key difference is, I guess, you know, when you think of normally Veterans Affairs or veterans kind of issues, you're normally thinking about the services provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs with the VA.

Yes.

The whether it's health care, you know, education benefits, housing benefits, etc..

The Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs, by comparison, we have three main lines of effort or focus areas, if you will.

We run two long term care facilities, one here in North Little Rock and one up in northwest Arkansas for veterans.

And we run two cemeteries for veterans again, one in North Little Rock and then one up in the small northeast Arkansas community of Burton.

And then we provide services for veterans and their spouses who are looking to sign up for disability benefits throughout the state in concert with the county judges.

And and so that's those are the key breakdowns for our agency.

But in terms of issues facing a veteran not only in Arkansas but everywhere, you know, health care, what I would seem to be near the top of the list.

You absolutely near the top of the list.

And that's what the Veterans Health Administration, our branch of the Department of Veterans Affairs, is here for.

You know, our mission is to provide exceptional health care to our veterans, to promote health and well-being.

And that's what we do here in central Arkansas.

And we're very proud of what we have to offer.

Well, and that's been expanded actually through legislation, Correct.

So, Pat, that legislation that went into effect in 2020 to expand ID health care eligibility to veterans based on location of service, length of service, and as some exposures during service.

And I think we have worked very closely with the VA to promote packed information, education and eligibility information to veterans.

A part of that PACT Act said that the VA must screen all are eligible enrolled veterans for toxic exposures every five years.

Chemical exposure.

Absolutely.

Or that location of service and Thomas service.

We're very proud the VA since Packet Act implementation has in central Arkansas, we have screened more than 48,000 veterans for toxic exposures and then worked on follow up care for those veterans as well.

The VA nationwide has screened over 5.8 million.

Do we have a sense in Arkansas how many we have not screened?

I don't have that number for the whole state.

I can get that for you.

I think we have many opportunities to screen veterans.

We can do that through any appointment at the VA.

They can also do it via phone.

So I have two phone numbers.

You can call 512, five, seven, six, 20 or 51257 4031 one and we can screen you over the phone and we'll try to add those numbers to as absolutely pain care is is a new fit, not necessarily a new facet, but is it would it be fair to say there's an added emphasis on that, a new emphasis?

Absolutely.

We know that many veterans are struggling with pain from wartime injuries and also just the normal aging process.

And we want to be state of the art at our VA health care system.

So we've been very fortunate to build interdisciplinary pain teams.

We have pain boarded physicians, we have pain specialists, pharmacists, psychologists and social workers providing anything from medication management, safe narcotic prescribing, and hopefully alternative, safe alternatives to that.

Our doctors also perform procedures, spine procedures, injections, spinal cord stimulators when appropriate, and also using ketamine infusions, which is a little bit newer approach to pain management.

This is delicate territory of pain in pain management, whether it's government or civilian medicine.

The implications of any kind of pain medication practice are pretty stringent.

Yes, we work diligently to work with our state partners, check our safe prescription drug monitoring programs, and really to listen to our veterans and address all aspects of pain.

So we've employed mental health providers who specialize in pain to work directly with our pain team.

So we're looking at the whole person and really listening and providing, hey, everyone's different.

You know, what works for one person doesn't work for the other.

And so we have a whole host of options to safely treat pain and address all aspects of it.

Telehealth may not be new to the V.A.

or to veterans health care, but it's expanding as well.

Right now, we really brought on by the pandemic, we were already using some telehealth modalities.

The pandemic really forced that and made us really look at ways that we could provide alternative care out at where and meet the veteran where they are in the community.

One recent expansion in telehealth that the central Arkansas VA has made is to add tele emergency care services.

So oftentimes, if we have a injury or illness that is not major but does need quick attention through telehealth, we can offer a access to a an emergency care physician Monday through Friday, 8 to 330.

You can call our contact center, get immediately put in with the emergency care physician.

These are board certified emergency care doctors, and they can address your needs remotely in the comfort of your own home and save you a trip to that emergency department.

And you can access that by calling our main number 581257 1000 hit option three or we also have a toll free number one 800 2248387.

Is there an outreach program to let vets know that these services are now available or newly are expanding?

Absolutely.

We have sent this message out through our town halls, through our veterans service organizations and VA other folks in the community that where you work with.

We want to get the message out as wide as possible.

And also through our local clinics.

Is there in your encounters or in your dealings with certainly on a clinical basis with veterans, is there are there top one, two or three issue clinical issues that that vets seem to be facing?

And I think, as Dr. Goodwin mentioned, pain management is a big issue.

Whole health, general wellness.

How can we make ourselves in better shape to last longer, right.

And be well?

And the quality of our health care, I think is very important to veterans.

And then access, you know, getting the care they need when they need it.

And I would add on to that, please, you know where they need it.

And I'm a native Arkansan.

I'm a fourth generation native Arkansan, many from rural Arkansas.

And we know that all veterans don't live right around our hospital in Little Rock.

So I'm extremely proud of our team for pushing our care out into the state physically.

We have now physical therapy clinics in all of our eight community based clinics from Eldorado to Mountain Home and Mina to Searcy.

You know, we've got the state covered with direct access to care.

Speaking of pain, we partnered and received national funding to build a Tela pain program that's fully staffed physicians, psychologists, social workers, pharmacists to perform comprehensive pain management services in the home or in those clinics directly to veterans, to other services, to mention quickly that we're very proud of and many people don't know, we operate a home based primary care group for veterans where we provide full primary care services in the home for some of our our highest needs, most complex veterans that, again, physicians, physical therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists looking after not only the veteran but also the caregiver.

And I'm proud to say that service has almost doubled since the pandemic, now serving over 400 veterans in their home, meeting their needs there.

And lastly, we know that we have a lot of aging veterans, a lot of aging population, and we want to make sure we're meeting the unique health care needs of that population.

So we have worked very hard to earn and spread what we call age friendly designation.

And so that is equipping not only geriatric providers but our primary care providers with the knowledge that it takes two to elicit the special needs of this aging population.

So we're proud that that's out in our community, in our emergency room or surgical services.

So I'm very proud, too, to reach out to rural Arkansans.

A few seconds remaining.

Let me give it to Secretary Pan, if I can.

How close and you're aware of this.

I mean, in every administration, it seems like there is always fresh criticism of the care that's being afforded American veterans.

How close, in your estimation, are we to getting the job done?

Well, I can only speak for my own point.

So I utilize the VA health care system now, and I only started here just about six months ago and I was blown away by the level of care and the comprehensive service that you get when you go in there.

I mean, normally under managed care out in the civilian community, everything is weighed against how much it's going to cost.

In the VA.

It's weighed against what does the veteran need.

And I can't say just anything more than what a great job you folks do over there.

Got to end it there because we're simply out of time, too.

All three of you are.

Thanks for coming in.

And of course, to all our veterans.

Thank you.

Special thanks for joining us.

See you next week.

Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, The Arkansas Times and Little Rock Public Radio.