CLATSKANIE — Alice Douglas has wanted to participate in a “tea party” for a long while, she said, but her schedule never seemed to mesh with any taking place around her. So, she decided to organize one in her hometown.

Douglas and fellow organizer Terry Salo were joined by about two dozen people at a rally Monday on the corner of Highway 30 and Nehalem Street in front of Hump’s Restaurant. Participants held signs protesting health care reform, the present administration and government spending.

“I was so frustrated (with government), but I couldn’t bash my television, so I had to do this,” Douglas said. “I wish I could have been on the bus that went to Washington, D.C.,” she said, referring to a national tea party tour earlier this fall.

Grassroot tea party protests have formed across the nation to push for smaller government — specifically opposing government bailouts, proposed health care reform and increased government spending in general. The name refers to the Boston Tea Party, when American colonists dumped tea in Boston Harbor in 1773 to protest British taxes prior to the American Revolution.

“We have to change it back to common sense government,” said Salo, who described himself as a conservative Democrat. “We’re here to complain about spending money we don’t have.”

Fueled in part by the economic stimulus package, the federal deficit reached a record $1.4 trillion in fiscal year 2009, which ended Sept. 30. The previous record deficit — $459 billion — was set the previous year under the Bush administration. The national debt now exceeds $12 trillion.

Clatskanie’s rally drew people from around Northwest Oregon, including Dorothy Bailey of Mist, bundled up in rain gear against the afternoon’s wind gusts and driving rain.

“I think we’ve been apathetic for too long and we need to start speaking out,” said Bailey, an independent. “I felt sitting home and doing nothing wasn’t doing any good. For many years our government has been out of control on spending, and the average person doesn’t know what to do.”

The rally lasted about two hours, Salo said, adding he was surprised at the turnout given the blustery day. Speakers included Salo, Clatskanie Mayor Diane Pohl and Doug Keller, a Republican who is running against incumbent Northwest Oregon congressman David Wu, a Democrat.

Sporadic honks and waves from passing motorists offered support to the rally, although there was the occasional anti-rally response, including one pedestrian across the street who shouted, “Get out of the road, you psychos.”

Salo said all government, not just at the federal level, is too big and too bureaucratic.

“I’m in favor of government being a smaller entity,” he said. “A lot of states are spending money they don’t have on frivolous programs.”

Salo said he’s opposed to the health reform bill the House just passed and hopes the Senate will defeat the measure.

The House measure would create a government-run insurance plan or “public option,” but under it the government would not directly dispense medical service beyond what it already provides (such as Veteran’s hospitals). The bill also would establish health insurance “exchanges” or marketplaces for consumers, require everyone to have health care coverage by 2013, expand Medicaid, increase taxes for the wealthy and bar insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.

“When you have government-operated health care,” Salo said, “there will be all these bureaucrats making decisions trying to justify their jobs.”