13 September,2009 10:29 AM IST | | Agencies
Tens of thousands of people marched from the shadow of the White House to the footsteps of the US Capitol on Sunday to protest against President Barack Obama and his big government policies.
They carried hand-painted posters with slogans decrying Obama's proposed healthcare reforms, or accusing the Democratic administration of leading the United States down the road to socialism.
"Abortion is not healthcare," read one sign. Another, held aloft by an immigrant from Ukraine, screamed: "I had enough of socialism in the USSR." Quinn Ryan, 11, stood in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue, near the spot where Obama and his wife Michelle walked on a bitter cold day in January after he was sworn in as the first black American president, brandishing a sign reading: "Born free, taxed to death."
"With the bad economy, it can really affect some people, like the lifestyle of certain people. It's affecting us at home... not so we can't eat at night but that's why we have to get involved now - so it doesn't get too bad," his 13-year-old sister Megan, who was holding her own sign, said.
The march, coordinated by Freedomworks, a grassroots movement calling for lower taxes, less government and more economic freedom for all Americans, drew demonstrators from across the United States.
Police at the Capitol were unable to say how many people had turned out for the rally, but at mid-afternoon, the crowd stretched out of sight from the legislature and onto the National Mall.
