An estimated 2,000 anti-tax advocates gathered in Carson City, Nevada, Wednesday, joining protesters at state Capitols, in neighborhoods and town squares across the country to kick off a series of tax-day protests designed to echo the rebellion of the Boston Tea Party.

The TEA--taxed enough already--rally was scheduled from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the steps of Nevada's state capitol building.

The demonstrators included a five-year-old boy holding a sign that read, "My share of the national debt is $36,500."

Some wore cowboy hats with tea bags dangling from them.

The crowd cheered as Republican U.S. Congressman Dean Heller criticized government spending, saying, "It's amazing what we're doing to the children and grandchildren of our country."

Protest organizers are delivering a petition to elected officials urging them to oppose bills that contain unfunded mandates. Several in the crowd said that if they have to live within a budget, the government should too.

In Las Vegas, county parks spokeswoman Jennifer Knight says an estimated 500 people showed up at Sunset Park near the airport for a rally and to wave signs at cars passing through a busy intersection.

Bruce Cowan, a 42-year-old small business owner from Henderson, says Americans are overtaxed. Cowan says the country's tax policies are driving businesses out of the United States.

At a sidewalk outside a nearby post office, 68-year-old Carmen Rhoda stood with more than 30 protesters holding a sign that read: "Born Free, Taxed to Death."

The Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee announced their support for the Carson event along with the hundreds of rallies against government spending that were being held across the nation; more than 235 years after the original Boston Tea Party tax revolt.

Organizers say they're steamed at increased government spending since President Barack Obama's administration took over.

According to the main Web site for the Wednesday events, Tax Day Tea Party; the Tea Party protests, began in 2009 when Rick Santelli, the on air editor for CNBC, set out on a rant "to expose the bankrupt liberal agenda of the White House Administration and Congress. Specifically, the flawed "Stimulus Bill" and pork filled budget."

During Santelli's on-air blow-out, he called for a tea party "where advocates of the free-market system could join in a protest," the Web site says.

Besides Nevada, the demonstrations are being held everywhere from Kentucky, which just passed tax increases on cigarettes and alcohol, to South Carolina, where the governor has repeatedly criticized the $787 billion federal stimulus package. Large protests also are expected in California, New York and Atlanta.

In Atlanta, thousands of people were expected to gather on the steps of the Georgia Capitol, where Fox News Channel conservative pundit Sean Hannity was set to broadcast his show Wednesday night. He's been promoting the show on Fox.

Organizers say the movement has developed organically through online social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and through exposure on Fox News.

And while they insist it's a nonpartisan effort, it has been seized on by many prominent Republicans - such as former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey - who view it as a promising way for the party to reclaim its momentum.

Gingrich planned to speak at a tea party in a New York City park and Armey at a similar event in Atlanta.

Gingrich's advocacy group, americansolutions.com, has partnered with tea party organizers to get word to the group's members.

"It's the Reagan coalition reorganizing itself," Gingrich spokesman Rick Sawyer said.

According to an NBC report, the Tax Day Tea Party Web site, is funded by conservative groups, and a public records search shows it is registered to Allen B. Fuller, who creates Web sites for Republican officials and who used to be a legislative aide to GOP Sen. Richard Shelby. The site also shows where demonstrations are being held and who is organizing protests. Click here to find out more.

In Washington, D.C., protesters had planned to dump a million tea bags in Lafayette Square, and even promised to put the bags on the tarps and clean up afterward. But their plans were thwarted after National Park Service officials said protesters didn't have the proper permit to dump the bags, NBC affiliate WRC TV reported.

"We have a million tea bags here, and we don't have a place to put them because it's not on our permit," said Rebecca Wales, lead organizer of D.C. Tea Party.

A D.C. think tank, the free market Competitive Enterprise Institute, said it would allow the dumping of the tea bags in its 12th floor conference room instead.

A second D.C. rally that had been planned outside the Treasury Department also was foiled by the lack of a permit.

Protests were also held in recent days, including on Tuesday when about 200 people gathered at the Missouri state Capitol, but Wednesday's actions were much larger and more widespread.

Obama hasn't commented on the protests, but he used April 15 to say he wants to take the dread out of deadline day.

Obama said he's working toward "a simpler tax code that rewards work and the pursuit of the American dream."

"For too long, we've seen taxes used as a wedge to scare people into supporting policies that increased the burden on working people instead of helping them live their dreams," Obama said. "That has to change, and that's the work that we've begun."

Obama also met at the White House with several working families to mark April 15 - known notoriously as file-or-else day - and underscore his efforts to make the tax code more fair and less complex.

He noted April 15 "isn't exactly everyone's favorite date on the calendar." But Obama said the day is a reminder to leaders in Washington that they have a responsibility to the people who elected them.

The president noted that he's asked his economic advisers to thoroughly review how to simplify the tax code and report back to him by year's end.

"We need to simplify a monstrous tax code that is far too complicated for most Americans to understand, but just complicated enough for the insiders who know how to game the system," Obama said.

The following is a list of confirmed Tea Party protests planned within the state of Nevada from the movement's Web site:
City: Carson City / Reno
When: April 15, 10:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Where: 401 S Carson Street in front of the Legislature Building

City: Fallon
When: April 15, Noon - 1 p.m.
Where: Fallon Millennium Park on the corner of Maine Street and Williams Street

City: Fernley
When: April 15, 2:30 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Where: City Hall, 595 Silverlace Blvd

City: Las Vegas
When: April 15, 12 p.m. - 7 p.m. The noon and 4:30 p.m. events are the major event times.
Where: Meet on the Sunset and Eastern intersections

Some tea party protests had already been held by late Wednesday morning. Among them:
• In Hartford, Conn., police estimated 3,000 people showed up at the state Capitol, where nearly two decades earlier an estimated 40,000 had converged in protest after the state enacted its personal income tax. This time, many carried makeshift pitchforks and signs with messages aimed at the Democrats who control Congress and the White House. "There needs to be some common sense restored to government at every level, Washington, in our state and in our towns," said Faith Burns of East Granby, who rang a school bell and wore a sandwich board with a picture of a pig in a circle crossed out. "And besides it's so much gosh-darned fun to ring this bell."
• In Des Moines, Iowa, more than 1,000 people gathered on the steps of the state Capitol wearing red shirts proclaiming "revolution is brewing." "The system is severely broken and we the people let it get that way," said Des Moines businessman Doug Burnett. "What can we do? My answer is revolution."
• In Madison, Wis., Jean Snyder of Milwaukee held a sign showing the U.S. Capitol as a pirate ship, with taxpayers walking the plank into a sea of debt.
• In Boston, Mass., a few hundred protesters gathered on the Boston Common - a short distance from the original Tea Party - with some dressed in Revolutionary War garb and carrying signs that said "Barney Frank, Bernie Madoff: And the Difference Is?" and "D.C.: District of Communism." Event coordinator Christen Varley, a conservative Catholic Republican, said she was thrilled with the turnout. "Personally, I envisioned me and 100 friends on the steps of the Statehouse," she said. "I never saw this coming."
• In Louisville, Ky., Laura Watkins pushed her 2-year-old daughter Zoe in a stroller with a sign strapped to the front reading "My Piggy Bank is not Your ATM." Watkins said she joined the protest after reading about it online and hearing about it on Fox News. "I don't want my daughter to inherit all this debt," she said.

-Andrew Cristancho-KRNV News 4, MSNBC and The Associated Press provided this report.