Several hundred protestors gathered downtown on Saturday in a modern day “Tea Party” to publicly “revolt and rally” against President Obama’s recent congressionally approved spending plans.

Hosted by the grassroots citizen group Santa Barbara County Tea Party, the event sought to echo the themes that inspired the Boston Tea Party of 1773 – which, according to the group’s mission statement, were the “restoration of lower taxes and less government and preservation of economic opportunity.” Publicized as “Santa Barbara’s Big, Cool Tea Party”, the rally culminated in a march led by drummers clad in colonial costumes that wound around the Santa Barbara County Superior Court to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Rather than targeting overtaxed Earl Grey, however, Saturday’s modern-day revolutionaries decried President Obama’s $3.5 trillion spending blueprint and the billions of dollars that have, thus far, been allotted to banks in the form of taxpayer funded bailouts.

Republican State Senators Tony Strickland of Thousand Oaks and George Runner of Antelope Valley were among the numerous public figures to speak at the event. Their message – that recent increases in government spending raise new and troubling questions about a ballooning federal government, the infringement on the free market and the burden of debt on American taxpayers – was echoed throughout the day by fellow protestors.

The event was one of hundreds of such rallies scheduled to take place around the country in the weeks before “Tax Day” on April 15.

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