World Apr. 16, 2009 - 06:20AM JST ( 157 )

NEW YORK —

Critics of U.S. President Barack Obama marked national tax day Wednesday with “tea party” protests that Republicans are calling the birth of a grassroots opposition, but Democrats dismiss as a fraud.

Initially small crowds gathered under blustery skies in Washington, New York and Boston to protest taxes, government bailouts, and Obama’s big-spending budget proposals.

Organizer Eric Odom said protests would take place across almost 800 cities in a “new day for the freedom movement.”

The demonstrations, styled on the famed 1773 Boston Tea Party revolt against British colonial taxes, came as Americans rushed to meet the annual deadline for filing income tax returns.

Protests featured teabags, iced tea and other tea-related props, complete with a planned re-enactment of the original dumping of tea into Boston harbor.

But despite the catchy theme, there were questions about whether the scattered, mostly Republican forces would be able to make an impact, let alone achieve the six-figure turnout predicted by Odom.

For now, Obama’s far-reaching economic policies, including a $787 billion anti-recession stimulus package, have broad support.

A USA Today/Gallup published Wednesday found a majority of Americans favor Obama’s expansion of the government’s role in the economy, at least for now.

In Washington, up to 1,000 people gathered mid-morning near the White House with placards including “Stop Big Government” and “Taxation is Piracy.”

“My money is disappearing,” said one protester, Marilyn Henretty 70, a retiree. “We are tired of being taxed without representation.”

On New York’s Staten Island, about 100 people waved flags and placards. “Read my lipstick: no new taxes,” one read.

Several dozen people in Boston rallied, footage from CNN television showed.

Protests were also scheduled across Democrat-dominated California, including on Los Angeles’ famous Santa Monica Pier.

“What is happening now is unfair,” said Alice Broich, who was organizing a protest in Palm Springs. “When you see mom and pop businesses going under and people losing their homes while these big businesses and CEOs are getting bailed out, it’s wrong.”

Dick Armey, chairman of the conservative Freedom Works group, described the tea parties as “the shot across the bow as taxpayers defend themselves against out of control government spending.”

But Democrats scathingly attacked the tea parties as an imitation grass roots movement manufactured by fringe elements of the right.

The tea parties “have been largely a creation of the same gang that already ran conservatism off the rails,” wrote David Waldman on the liberal Daily Kos politics blog.

Obama sought to recover the initiative by defending his policies at a meeting with working families at the White House. “I know that April 15 isn’t exactly everyone’s favorite date on the calendar,” he quipped.

The man credited with sparking the protests is CNBC television commentator Rick Santelli, who called in February for a “tea party” to oppose government bailouts for mortgage defaulters.

The clip of Santelli’s angry outburst has been viewed on YouTube more than a million times.

The protests stand out for the use of web-savvy marketing, something barely seen in John McCain’s unsuccessful battle for the White House against Democrat Obama.

According to Odom, the tea parties represent the birth of a new grassroots Republican movement able to match Obama’s formidable support network.

“New leaders will come into play, new coalitions will form, new tax groups will be born, and a new energy will surround us all across the country,” Odom wrote.

“A completely new face will be put on a movement that has suffered at the hands of attempted top down control and old school political hacks over the years.”

But Democrats were working overtime, well in advance of the protests, to dismiss them as irrelevant.

Criticism ranges from allegations that the protests are a political con staged by corporations, to poking fun at Republicans’ seemingly innocent vow to go “teabagging”—a word that in slang signifies a sex act.

Wire reports