Colorado: Jim Pfaff

Moments before President Barack Obama's pen touched paper Tuesday, Republican state Sen. Shawn Mitchell's tongue spit fire.

"Today is unfortunately historic," Mitchell, from Broomfield, told a crowd of hundreds gathered on the west side of the state Capitol in protest against the federal stimulus package. "It marks one of the biggest, most expensive mistakes in the history of American domestic policy."

Mitchell was one of a lineup of conservative lawmakers and activists who stirred the crowd by blasting the stimulus bill as fiscally irresponsible and an unwanted government intrusion into taxpayers' pockets.

Jim Pfaff, the Colorado state director of Americans for Prosperity, said the stimulus is massive deficit spending.