Face the State

Face The State Staff Report

While President Barack Obama was signing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, hundreds of Coloradans rallied blocks away at the state Capitol in opposition to the legislation.

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The Independence Institute, a free-market think-tank, and Americans for Prosperity, a limited-government advocacy group, jointly organized the event. Families signed their names to four-foot wide checks made out to the federal government in the amount of $30,000, representing the stimulus' cost to the average American family of four.

“This is not a Republican or Democrat issue,” said Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute. “It’s about our kids.”

The crowd chanted “No more pork!” and applauded the line-up of state Republican and conservative leaders. Barb Neville of Littleton paraded her pet pig across the stage. National commentator and author Michelle Malkin called the stimulus bill "generational debt" and served the crowd pork sandwiches after the rally.

Rocky Mountain News media commentator Jason Salzman and ProgressNow director Michael Huttner circulated through the crowd passing out a flyer and carrying a sign that blamed the recession on former President George W. Bush and Colorado state Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction. They accused Penry and his fellow Republicans of playing partisan games with Colorado jobs.

Penry was not fazed by the attack. “I’ve never been so proud to be a Republican as when the House Republicans stood up against this [stimulus bill],” he said.

Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, said he was excited to see so much public involvement in the rally. The best counter to Obama’s policies, he said, was for people to speak up, call talk radio shows and write letters to newspaper editors. “The crowd was so huge because people are concerned,” Mitchell said. “They are concerned about their family, their future and the economy.”