It was billed as Tax Day Tea Party with signs like “No to American Socialism,” and "You can't spend you way out of debt,"and "Don't tax me, bro." One sign said "The folks are FED up and FIRED up; time for Washington to LISTEN up!"
The Anacortes rally was one of dozen across the state. In Olympia, some 5,000 people spilled across the state Capitol steps in what one state Patrol Sgt. said was the largest rally at the Capitol in years.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the average family paid about 9 percent of its earnings to the IRS in 2006, the most recent year for which information is available.
According to the most recent IRS statistics, about 45 million households — one-third of all filers — owed no federal income tax after taking their credits and deductions in 2006. This year, with the profusion of new credits in the stimulus package, about 65 million households — or 43 percent of all filers — are likely to owe no income taxes, according to a new analysis by the Tax Policy Center.