Taxpayer March on Washington

Taxpayer March on Washington

Protesters walking towards the United States Capitol during the march
Date	September 12, 2009
Location	Washington, D.C.
Website	912DC.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]