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Sarah Palin at the Tea Party rally on Boston Common on Wednesday.

BOSTON - Seventeen small-business owners from Northampton, ranging from a sheet metal purveyor to a forklift mechanic, joined thousands of Tea Partiers Wednesday on Boston Common to hear Sarah Palin speak and support the Tea Party movement.

The group, organized by self-described political newcomer John Rhoades of Northampton, took a two-hour bus ride Wednesday morning to demonstrate for smaller government and less taxes. "Bigger government doesn't mean people will be better off," said Rhoades.

Addressing roughly 5,000 people, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee accused President Barack Obama of overreaching with his $787 billion stimulus program. She also criticized the administration's health care, student loan and financial regulatory overhauls.

"Is this what their 'change' is all about?" Palin asked the crowd on a sun-splashed Boston Common. "I want to tell 'em, nah, we'll keep clinging to our Constitution and our guns and religion - and you can keep the change."

She also played to the crowd by trotting out a trademark line as she lobbied for more domestic energy production.

"Yeah, let's drill, baby, drill, not stall, baby, stall - you betcha," Palin said, though Obama recently proposed to expand drilling off the Atlantic, and Gulf coasts.

Rhoades carried a sign with a picture of Barack Obama dressed as King George III of England that said "King George didn't listen to us either." Rhoades said he was concerned about possible backlash from customers in Northampton who disagree with his politics, but felt he had to come to the rally anyway. "We have to come here because they don't come to us," said Rhoades. "Apparently, Massachusetts ends at (Route) 495."

David Fortier of Northampton agreed. "We have to travel to hear what they have to say, but it's very important," he said. "I've never been a very political person, but I was better off 25 years ago."

Dianne Galvagni of North Hatfield shares Fortier's concerns. "I've been in business for 29 years, and I don't think we'll make it to 30," she said. Galvagni, who runs Industrial Sheet Metal in Hatfield, carried a sign saying "Stop Spending My Grandson's Money" on one side and "small business owner taxed to death" on the other.

Galvagni said she had never been to a protest before and was encouraged to go to the Tea Party rally by Rhoades. She said she had not been able to go to an earlier rally held in Hartford, Conn., and so decided to come to this event.

Galvagni said her main concern was the high tax rates she said are hurting her business. Galvagni's husband, Gary, said the difficulty of actually filling out tax forms is as onerous as the costs of the taxes themselves. "It's like a shell game, and the rules keep changing," said Gary Galvagni, a sheet metal worker. "It just makes more money for the accountants."

Gary Savard of West Hatfield, who owns G and S Industrial, which services forklifts blocks away from the Galvagnis, also has problems with the tax code. "Taxes are out of control," he said. "And then there are the new fees when they can't raise taxes."

Though many Tea Party protesters cited the health care reform bill as a major reason to get involved, the Galvagnis were less concerned than disappointed with its implementation. "Health insurance costs are through the roof," said Gary Galvagni. "They were supposed to go down."

Many at the rally declined to give any identifying information about themselves, citing concerns about possible retribution. A man holding a sign calling for a Sarah Palin/Paris Hilton presidential ticket called himself Ned Hill and claimed to be from Bearscat, Alaska, but made a reference to taking the Greyhound bus to Boston from western Massachusetts.

Tea partiers planned to meet for a final rally in Washington today, coinciding with the federal tax-filing deadline.

Dianne Galvagni said she worried about the impact her political views could have on her business.

"In Northampton you have to be careful what you say to customers because if they are liberal they won't be customers anymore," said Galvagni.

Most of the people at the Tea Party rally said they were either unemployed or self-employed, and so were able to come to Boston in the middle of the day on a Wednesday. Local Republican leader Christopher Casale said he wanted to go, but had to work instead. "Generally people around here are working," said Casale, of Northampton.

Savard said he resented the tax burden he carries because he believes much of his taxes pay for programs in the more populous Boston area. "All we do is pay for eastern Mass and every now and then we get a little trickle," said Savard.

Dianne Galvagni said she did not understand why the state and federal governments had such large deficits and budget shortfalls. "If I can't afford something, I don't buy it," she said.

Rhoades and Fortier stressed the importance of common sense in government and spoke about the importance of small-business owners to the state of Massachusetts.

"As a collective, we're probably the biggest employer in the state," said Fortier. "We may not be much as one, but as a whole, we're a lot."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.