Taxpayer March expects big draw

Tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected to descend upon the nation’s capital next weekend to voice their concerns about what they call Congress’ “nonstop tax-and-spend agenda” in the first-ever Taxpayer March on D.C.

The three-day event will begin Thursday morning at the D.C. Armory in Southeast Washington and is expected to end Saturday with a march from Freedom Plaza down Pennsylvania Avenue to a rally on the U.S. Capitol steps. Participants can attend workshops and lobby their congressmen while attending rallies on health care and the economy.

The National Park Service says it has issued permits for more than 2,000 people for the Freedom Plaza gathering. That number is a fraction of the crowd expected to show at the rally.

U.S. Park Police also expect a decent turnout because of the national attention the event has garnered from newspaper and television reports and from grass-roots groups organizing on the Internet. Organizers could be seen handing out fliers for the event at recent health care town-hall meetings in Maryland.

“Those health care town halls put an interesting twist on things,” said Sgt. David Schlosser, a Park Police spokesman. “As it stands right now, it’s obviously bigger than routine permits where you literally have three people. There should be a pretty good turnout - people are super ramped up for it.”

Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Traci Hughes said that while police anticipate thousands of protestors at the event, that number is, “certainly not a number that will pose any significant disruptions to traffic.”

Event organizer Brendan Steinhauser of FreedomWorks - a conservative grass-roots organization headed by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey - said he expects tens of thousands of people to attend on Saturday.

“Why take to the streets? It’s much more visible than calling congressmen who don’t answer their phones anyway,” Mr. Steinhauser said. “There will be a visual of a huge crowd on the steps of the Capitol to show that a lot of people are unified in one time at one place with one voice saying, ‘Enough is enough.’ ”

The group says it expects demonstrators to travel from all over the country to attend the event.

Other event coordinators include TeaPartyPatriots.org and Grassfire.org. All three organizations encourage fiscal responsibility, limited government and free enterprise.

Mr. Armey, a Texas Republican who has served as a leader of “tea party” anti-spending rallies nationwide, will speak at the event. Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican; Rep. Tom Price, Georgia Republican; and Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, among others, are scheduled to appear at the rally near the Capitol.