Hundreds gather in Santa Rosa to protest taxes, spending

<p>Hundreds of people, many of them wearing tea bags pinned to their caps, shirts and jackets, gathered for a noon rally today at Old Courthouse Square in Sannta Rosa to protest what they said is excessive taxation and economic policies that are bankrupting the country.</p><p>Demonstrators blasted President Barack Obama’s stimulus package and Wall Stree bailouts as part of a nationwide tax-day protest designed to echo the rebellion of the Boston Tea Party.</p><p>“Government is getting too big, infringing on a lot of our liberties,” said Megan Cromwell, a 26-year-old Rohnert Park resident who helped organize the Santa Rosa event.</p><p>Cromwell said American taxpayers are victims pf “out-of-control spending” and that the country is weakened by its status as a debtor nation that could be brought to its kneesby a country like China. “All they have to do is cash in that debt and we’re destroyed,” she said.</p><p>Demonstrators waved American flags and carried signs with clever jabs at Obama, such as, “‘Chains’ We Can Believe in” and “Obama-nomics: Weapons of Mass Debt.” Some stood holding flags and signs on the west side of Mendocino Avenue, their message affirmed by honking drivers.</p><p>Santa Rosa police officials said there between 450 and 500 people at the rally, a figure tsimilar to theestimates of organizers. The rally started at noon and lasted three hours.</p><p>Midway through the rally, about 100 protesters marched to the federal building at 777 Sonoma Avenue. When they arrived, only a handful entered the building before guards locked the doors and blocked the entrance.</p>