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Koch-backed group launches $9 million ad campaign against health law

A conservative advocacy group closely aligned with the Tea Party announced a $9 million swing-state push against President Obama and the healthcare law.

The announcement by Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which is largely funded by the conservative Koch brothers, comes one day after the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the vast majority of the law in a major coup for Obama.

"While we are deeply disappointed in the Supreme Court ruling," AFP President Tim Phillips said in a statement, "this is far from over."

The group's push is worth $9 million, according to a release. It includes a television ad buy as well as grassroots and online efforts against the law, though the division of spending between the different efforts was not made clear.

Targeted states include Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin — all expected to be hotly contested in November's presidential election. Blue states Minnesota and New Mexico were also on the list.

The television ad calls the health law "one of the largest tax increases in history" — a refrain expected to form the foundation of GOP arguments against the law as the election draws near.

"Shouldn't President Obama's priorities have been creating jobs and ending reckless spending?" the ad's narrator says.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) hit back quickly.

"Mitt Romney and his Republican billionaire friends are engaging in deception in their newest ad," DNC national press secretary Melanie Roussell said in a statement.

"Because it provides significant tax credits for insurance premiums for families and small businesses, the Affordable Care Act is the largest health care tax cut for the middle class on record."

She added that "If Republicans are attacking the president’s individual mandate as a tax, why aren’t they attacking Mitt Romney’s?"

—This post was updated at 5:34 p.m.