Taxpayer March on Washington

Taxpayer March on Washington
Protesters walking towards the United States Capitol during the march
DateSeptember 12, 2009
LocationWashington, D.C.
Website912DC.org

The Taxpayer March on Washington (also known as the 9/12 Tea Party) was a Tea Party protest march from Freedom Plaza to the United States Capitol held on September 12, 2009, in Washington, D.C.[1][2] The event coincided with similar protests organized in various cities across the nation.[3] The protesters rallied against what they consider big government, the dismantling of free market capitalism, abortion, and President Barack Obama's proposals on health care reform, taxation, and federal spending, among other issues.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

The lead organizer of the event was Brendan Steinhauser, who was serving as the Director of Federal and State Campaigns for FreedomWorks. Organizers of the event included the 9-12 Project, FreedomWorks, the National Taxpayers Union, The Heartland Institute, Americans for Tax Reform, Tea Party Patriots, ResistNet and Americans for Prosperity.[9][10][11][12][13] The event was also promoted by Fox News commentator Glenn Beck as a symbol of what he called "national unity" following the eight-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks.[14][15] The march is the largest gathering of fiscal conservatives ever held in Washington, D.C.,[16][17] and was the largest demonstration against President Obama's administration.[4]

A wide range of crowd estimates was suggested for the event,[18] with most media sourcing the Public Information Officer of the D.C. Fire Department, who unofficially estimated the attendance "in excess of 75,000" people.[1][18][19][20] The D.C. Fire Department later released a statement saying that they do not do crowd estimates, and any crowd estimation attributed to them was false; they also stated that an early estimate of 60,000 over Twitter was for a specific area, Freedom Plaza, not the total number of participants in the event.[21] Event organizers also reported a range of attendance. FreedomWorks suggested between 600,000 and 800,000 participants while National Taxpayers Union said 200,000 to 300,000.[18]

  1. ^ a b Sherman, Jake (September 13, 2009). "Protesters March on Washington". The Wall Street Journal. online.wsj.com. Archived from the original on September 18, 2009. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  2. ^ Keefe, Bob (September 12, 2009). "Georgians lead protest at Taxpayer March on Washington". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. ajc.com. Archived from the original on September 22, 2009. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  3. ^ a b Vogel, Kenneth P.; Isenstadt, Alex (September 12, 2009). "Protests present GOP with tricky task". The Politico. politico.com. Archived from the original on March 10, 2015. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  4. ^ a b Zeleny, Jeff (September 12, 2009). "Thousands Rally in Capital to Protest Big Government". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 13, 2012. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  5. ^ Doyle, Leonard (September 12, 2009). "Anti-Barack Obama health care protesters pour into Washington". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on September 23, 2009. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  6. ^ "Protests over Obama health reform". BBC News. news.bbc.co.uk. September 12, 2009. Archived from the original on July 23, 2018. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  7. ^ Andrews, Edmund L.; Sanger, David E. (September 13, 2009). "U.S. Is Finding Its Role in Business Hard to Unwind". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 14, 2013. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
  8. ^ Wood, Gaby (November 29, 2009). "Glenn Beck: the renegade running the opposition to Obama". The Observer. guardian.co.uk. p. 4. Archived from the original on September 8, 2013. Retrieved November 30, 2009.
  9. ^ Brown, Emma; Hohmann, James; Bacon, Perry (September 13, 2009). "Lashing Out at the Capitol: Tens of Thousands Protest Obama Initiatives and Government Spending". The Washington Post. washingtonpost.com. Archived from the original on April 10, 2019. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  10. ^ Wolf, Carol (September 14, 2009). "US healthcare protesters rally against Obama plan". Irish Independent. independent.ie. Archived from the original on September 23, 2009. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
  11. ^ Pilkington, Ed (September 13, 2009). "Barack Obama denounced by rightwing marchers in Washington". The Guardian. guardian.co.uk. Archived from the original on September 7, 2013. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
  12. ^ Isenstadt, Alex (September 12, 2009). "'Freedom fighters' take a stand in D.C." The Politico. politico.com. Archived from the original on June 18, 2013. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference guardian20090918 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Wolf, Carol (September 14, 2009). "Demonstrators attack Obama's 'socialist' reforms". Bloomberg News. theage.com.au. Archived from the original on November 8, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
  15. ^ Phillips, Michael M. (October 5, 2009). "FreedomWorks Harnesses Growing Activism on the Right". The Wall Street Journal. online.wsj.com. p. A4. Archived from the original on May 4, 2018. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
  16. ^ Weigel, David (September 14, 2009). "Beltway Conservatives Comb Tea Party Movement for Converts". The Washington Independent. washingtonindependent.com. Archived from the original on September 22, 2009. Retrieved September 15, 2009.
  17. ^ "Politics this week". The Economist. economist.com. September 17, 2009. Archived from the original on September 26, 2009. Retrieved September 18, 2009.
  18. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference crowds was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference goldman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ "ABC News Was Misquoted on Crowd Size". ABC News. abcnews.go.com. September 12, 2009. Archived from the original on September 15, 2009. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference dcfd was invoked but never defined (see the help page).