Dr. Marshall on the Issues

Robert Marshall for US Congress in IL 6th District is a campaign to elect Dr. Marshall, a Burr Ridge, Illinois, resident. His positions on issues such as political corruption, health care reform, and economic recovery are open and transparent, and affect each and every voter who supports him. Here, he has tried to be as candid as possible, though he always welcomes questions from the people he hopes to represent.

Political Corruption

In recent years, the great city of Chicago and the state of llinois have once again fallen victim to rampant political corruption, abuses of office, and deterioration of the public trust in the elected officials charged with safeguarding our streets, restoring our economic vitality, and guaranteeing our future interests. Robert Marshall wants to combat political corruption and cronyism by supporting:

• Term Limits for Senators (2 Terms/12 Years) & Congressmen (5 Terms/10 Years)
• Public Support of Political Campaigns to Minimize the Influence of Politically & Financially Powerful Interest Groups & Their Agendas
• Repeal Citizens United

Health Care Reform

Dr. Marshall knows how important health care is, and looks to continue the reform under the Affordable Care Act. He hopes to continue to increase the number of ensured by expanding coverage and decreasing the Medicare age to 62.

LGBT Issues

Dr. Marshall has defended the rights of the LGBT community to marry during the last campaign for senate in 2009. This year, he will continue to campaign to further the rights of the LGBT community.

Energy and Environment

Now more than ever, energy independence is an integral part of our national security. Gone are the days when the cost of our reliance on foreign oil could be measured with the dollar sign. In these times, our dependence on foreign oil endangers our security, our national stability, and our standing in the world community. To decrease our dependence on foreign oil, Robert Marshall supports green initiatives, alternative fuel sources, and research in sustainable energies. Of course, we must strike a balance between environmental concerns and the cost of American jobs. Robert Marshall believes that American ingenuity can bring about a sustainable, ecologically responsible economy, which can provide employment opportunities for all.

Economic Recovery

When big companies get themselves into financial trouble, the Federal Government bails them out. When your small business comes upon hard times, who is there to help you? Where does the help come from? Robert Marshall believes that sometimes, when big businesses fail, we have to allow them to proceed through bankruptcy. There cannot be one set of laws and policies for the rich and powerful, and yet another for the average, hard-working American.

The best way to get our national economy back on its feet is to stimulate middle class spending. The best way to do that, of course, is through tax relief for the middle class.

Women's Rights

Robert Marshall supports the reproductive freedom of all people. He recognizes the autonomy of women with regards to some of the most difficult decisions they can face. He believes that the way to decrease abortions is through education and improved economic opportunities. He has been pro-choice for his entire political career and believes that funding can continue for Planned Parenthood™, since a large percentage of this funding goes to non-abortion care.

Women's Issues

The following is an excerpt of a speech I gave at the DuPage County Democratic Women's Organization on Saturday, January 23.

I am a physician and a private citizen, I am not a career politician. I am a Vietnam veteran and I am running for this office because my experience in Vietnam taught me that we are making the same mistake in the Mideast that we made in Vietnam 50 years ago. We must do the same thing in the Mideast as we did in Vietnam, that is, cease the bombing that we are doing there now and withdraw all of our troops as soon as possible. Only in this way will we avoid further terrorist acts in our country.

I am also interested in many women's issues. The most important ones are:

1. Extending the statute of limitations for rape. I would not be opposed to making it for life as it is for murder.

2. Women should be believed in cases of rape, instead of, as it is now where they are not believed.

3. I have always been pro-choice on the issue of abortion. I was a Republican for many years but even then I was pro-choice. You do not get far in the Republican Party if you are pro-choice on abortion and one of the reasons I left that party was because of the abortion issue.

I did my training in the 1960's prior to when abortion was made legal. The abortion situation is no joke. Women do die if they do not get proper abortion care and if they do not die, they get horrible infections and become sterile for life.

I believe that we should continue to fund Planned Parenthood as we have been doing.

4. We need reasonable gun laws to decrease the level of gun violence in this country. We also need to end the "War on Drugs" since at least 50% of the gun violence is related to gang activity involving the drug trade. We should legalize marijuana on a nationwide basis and make drug treatment more available and affordable.

5. We should continue to support mammography for all eligible women in this country.

Mammography, by the way, is my specialty as a Radiologist. I calculate that I have interpreted between 80,000 to 100,000 mammograms throughout my career for the past 42 years. If we save 1 to 3 lives per 1,000 mammograms examinations, I calculate that I have saved the lives of approximately 200 to 300 women over the course of my career.

6. I support the ERA Amendment. I believe that most of the discrimination that women experience could be solved if we could pass this amendment. The amendment did not pass 30 years ago because it was voted down by the State of Illinois. It seems appropriate that we re-start our attempts to pass this amendment by beginning here in Illinois.

Other Issues

1. Get money out of politics: Repeal Citizens United. Prevent billionaires from buying our elections. Vote for public support of political campaigns.
2. Support middle class and working men and women - Oppose TPP and re-evaluate all foreign trade agreements. (NAFTA, CAFTA, etc)
3. End unfair pay: Support $15.00 per hour minimum wage and pay equity for women.
4. Create new jobs: Invest in education, renewable energy and infrastructure.
5. Make college affordable: Debt relief for graduates, move toward free tuition at public universities by expanding Pell Grant Program.
6. Expand Social Security: Increase benefits by taking Social Security out of the General Fund and putting it in a segregated fund so it cannot be raided by Washington politicians.
7. See if single payer healthcare system is feasible by slowly decreasing Medicare age down to 62 age range.
8. Close tax loop holes: Make corporations and the very wealthy pay their fair share.
9. Require 2 weeks paid vacation and 3 month maternity leave for large corporations.

10. GET OUT OF ALL WARS IN THE MIDEAST AND USE THAT MONEY FOR DOMESTIC PROGRAMS.

For more information clink on websites for Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun Times, Daily Herald and Northwest Daily Herald and clink on candidate questionnaire. These questionnaires are very extensive and cover a large number of issues.

Eliminate The Tolls

Everyday hundreds of thousands of people enter our state on our highways and they pay nothing to finance these superhighways. They can pass through the state without paying any tolls, buying gasoline or any other products, not even candy bars. They pollute our air, clog up our highways and use our services but in many cases do not contribute a penny to the State of Illinois for using these services.

I have a plan whereby these motorists will pay their fair share and in fact we can eliminate the internal tolls on the highways that we use.

The solution is to place tolls on the entrances to the state and charge a reasonable fee for these out of staters using our highways. We can charge something in the range of 4 to 5 dollars for a car and more for a truck to use our entire highway system. This should generate almost enough money to support the whole system and we can therefore eliminate the tolls that we are paying on the older highways. The newer highways, such as Route 355, have not been paid for and therefore these tolls can remain until the bonds are paid off. We will still be paying our fair share through gasoline taxes.

I got this idea from the city of Boston. When you land at Logan Airport you go to Boston via tunnels which go under the harbor. People pay one fee in the range of 3 to 4 dollars to use the tunnels coming into the city but there is no toll leaving the city going to the airport.

There are 10 to 12 superhighway entrances into our state and we could do the same thing by placing tolls there so that out of staters can pay their fair share for the upkeep of our highways.

It is time to ELIMINATE THE TOLLS on the internal highways that we have paid for several times over in the past decades.