Government Spending Protested Across Nation

Americans gathered to protest government spending, including a $787 billion stimulus bill passed earlier this year.

Tea party protest against government spending at New York City Hall on April 15, 2009. Evan Mantyk/The Epoch Timess

NEW YORK—Americans gathered at city halls, state capitols, and other civic locations on Tax Day to protest government spending, including a $787 billion stimulus bill passed earlier this year. The grassroots protests, billed as tea parties in the spirit of the Boston Tea Party, were scheduled in all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C.

Reports Wednesday evening indicated that around 700 tea parties took place, including one in Boston, where hundreds cheered as people dressed in colonial-style clothes symbolically tossed crates of tea into Boston Harbor.

At New York City Hall, more than a thousand gathered to voice their frustration with the federal government’s spending.

“We’re here to protest fiscal irresponsibility. The legislators in D.C. and Albany, they’re not representing us correctly,” said Kellen Guida, who organized the New York City protest through his Web site, Parcbench.com. “They’re saying it’s these right-wing billionaires who are organizing these activities and providing all the money. Well, I can tell you single-handedly, that they’re not.”

The tea parties got their inspiration in February when CNBC host Rick Santelli gave an on-air rant criticizing the Obama Administration’s mortgage rescue plan and comparing the United States to early communist Cuba.