The Heritage Foundation's action group will be met with Obamacare supporters. | JAY WESTCOTT/POLITICO Liberals fight anti-Obamacare tour

The Heritage Action tour to defund Obamacare is getting an unwelcome visitor: Obamacare allies.

Americans United for Change and Protect Your Care are planning to travel across the country to counteract Heritage Action’s nine-city August tour calling on Congress to choke off funds to the president’s health care law.


“We’re not going to let this dangerous and ludicrous proposal be touted without a response — we’re going to every state they are [going to] and our presence will be felt,” the liberal groups wrote as they ann0unced the tour Friday. “We’ll hold our own events in some cases with dozens of concerned citizens, elected officials, doctors, nurses, students, seniors and people from across the spectrum who are or will benefit from the law.”

The Heritage Action tour, meant to drum up support for defunding the health care law during the congressional budget battles this fall, will be led by former Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and starts Monday in Fayetteville, Ark.. It wraps up Aug. 29 in Wilmington, Del. Some of those advocating defunding say it’s nonnegotiable — even if that means a government shut down.

Supporters of the president’s health law will hold their own events and speeches hours before the Heritage stops, and they’ll be visible at the Heritage events, too. They’ll also use mobile billboards in Fayetteville and Dallas on Tuesday, where the Heritage tour will be joined by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex), whose prominent role in the funding fight has brought him national attention and a burst of speculation about 2016 presidential ambitions.

The Obamacare allies claim the law’s opponents want to take away tangible benefits people are receiving, like preventive care and coverage for young adults. They say the GOP foes of the law want to deny health coverage to people —a theme that President Barack Obama hit hard in last week’s White House press conference.

“If [opponents] had their way, middle-class families could once again be bankrupted and lose everything because of an illness, accident or medical emergency,” the groups wrote. “Revoking coverage for people could be life-threatening in many cases.”

Americans United and Protect Your Care recently announced a 10-state operation to aggressively fight back against GOP messaging in the ramp up to enrollment in Obamacare coverage, which starts Oct. 1 and runs for six months. The effort is also backed by Health Care for America Now, Planned Parenthood Federation of American, the Center for American Progress, SEIU and AFSCME.

The tour announcement comes a day after FreedomWorks revealed an effort to confront Republican lawmakers who haven’t signed onto the effort to defund Obamacare in upcoming budget battles.