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Here's Rep. Keith Ellison, co-chair of the House Congressional Progressive Caucus, on reports that Social Security cuts will be included in the debt ceiling. His message: Social Security isn't adding to the deficit, it "loans us money."

ELLISON: Social Security actually is not contributing to the deficit. Social Security loans us money. So at the end of the day, all this discussion about how we’re going to cut Social Security is very distressing to me because Social Security isn’t the problem…This is inequitable and regressive…We’re asking the poorest Americans to sacrifice. When are the wealthiest Americans going to step up and do the patriotic thing, which is to contribute to deal with this budget deficit.

That's the message from the caucus as a whole, delivered today in a press conference and a letter to President Obama.

This morning, in the wake of news that the White House is offering major entitlements cuts in exchange for $1 trillion in revenues from Republicans, the Congressional Progressive Caucus again laid down their marker, shooting off a letter to the White House saying they can’t support such a bargain. It reads:

First, any cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid should be taken off the table. The individuals depending on these three programs deserve well-conceived improvements, not deep, ideologically driven cuts with harmful consequences. These cuts would hurt households and damage the country’s economic recovery as well.

Second, revenue increases must be a meaningful part of any agreement. Tax breaks benefiting the very richest Americans should be eliminated as part of this deal. Republican insistence on protecting these tax breaks will force middle-class families to shoulder the burden of even deeper budget cuts, and this is unacceptable.

Do House Dems have any prayer of exerting leverage over the talks in service of realizing even a smidgen of what they want?

That's a good question on the part of Sargent, and it's going to depend on the ability of this caucus to hold firm where they haven't before (public option, tax cut deal). Sargent points out that Dem Rep. Peter Welch is pushing liberal Dems hard to fight a bad deal "on the idea that it’s the only way House Dems can break a dynamic which continues to leave them with little influence." That means to potentially be willing to vote against their president.

The full text of the CPC's letter to the President is below the fold.