Dr. Robert Marshall, Candidate for U.S. Congress, 6th District

Candidate Full Name: Dr. Robert Marshall M.D.

Office: U.S. Congress, 6th District

Party: Democrat

Email Address: radman1200@aol.com

Web Site: www.citizensforrobertmarshall.com

Campaign Name: Marshall for U.S. Congress

Mailing Address: 3304 Grove Av Berwyn, Il. 60402

Phone: 708 795 1655

Survey Questions (Character limit of 2,000 per response)

1. Please tell us about yourself, your background and why you believe you are qualified to hold this office.

I was born in Dayton, Ohio and lived in public housing until age 14. I received scholarships to Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire and Oberlin College and also Harvard Medical School. After my residency training, I went into the army as a physician and was in Vietnam from 1971 to 1972. I went back to the East for a few years but I wanted to return to the Midwest and then accepted a job here at MacNeal Hospital as Assistant Director of Radiology. Since 1984, I have had a private office in Berywn in Radiology.

I obviously bring several life experiences to this office, which I hope will make me a better candidate than my opponent. I am a physician, a father of four and a grandfather of two. I was in Vietnam for 19 months and this has taught me several things about military service and has shaped my opinions, especially involving question number three.

I am a private citizens and not a career politician and I believe that we need more of that type in Washington rather than career politicians.

2. With this being a presidential election year, who would you like to be elected President and why?

I am strongly supporting Senator Bernie Sanders for the presidency. I agree almost 100% with his platform, although I do not go to many of the extremes that he does, such as taxation and single payor system for healthcare. I favor a more piecemeal approach to reforming our healthcare system and I would do this by slowly lower the Medicare age to 62 and then possibly age 60.

All of his other proposals involving breaking up the New York City banks, campaign finance reform, requiring millionaire and billionaires to pay more of the fair share of taxes, supporting unions and worker's rights, immigration and drug policy. I support him completely.

3. The fight against ISIS is on everyone's mind, especially after the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino. What would your plan be in the fight against ISIS and for the national security of the U.S?

I take an entirely different approach to the problem of ISIS and it is more in sync with that of Senator Sanders. I believe we had no right to invade that country and we have no reason to stay there militarily. I believe we should stop the bombing immediately and withdraw our troops as soon as possible over a period of a few weeks. We should withdraw from Afghanistan also.

Young people are radicalized throughout the world because of our actions in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan and after we withdraw our troops from those areas, there should be fewer, and in fact, and almost no terrorist activities within our country. We can then rely on standard police techniques and activities to guard against and prevent further terrorist attacks.

4. Do you support a federal assault weapons ban? Why or why not? What other federal gun control measures would you support?

I support the recent proposals of President Obama.

5. What are your thoughts on what has been done so far with immigration reform?

Throughout all of Illinois there is a very large number of immigrants, documented and undocumented, It is time that we welcome these people into our society as citizens. We need to remember that we are all immigrants or have one in our history. There are no exceptions.

We also need to remember that the people who become citizens become more productive. They can get a better education and a better job. They would then pay more in taxes, which would mean the rest of us could pay less. Economies that have a progressive immigration policy tend to do better over time than economies that have a restrictive policy, for instance, the USA versus much of the rest of the world.

I would start with the immigrants who have been here the longest and grant them citizenship and then work forward for immigrants who have been here more recently. People convicted of major felonies, obviously, would be excluded.

I favor the Dream Act by President Obama.

We also need to liberalize our work permit program so that an immigrant who already has a job should automatically be granted a work visa. He should not have to worry about whether he or his family would be deported, even by Mt. Trump. If he lost his job, he would have ample time to get another one before his visa would expire.