We all read yesterday with horror the inside story of the cat food commission, where Republicans are steadfastly rejecting all revenue solutions and defense contractors like Honeywell CEO David Cote have a voice on the panel, trying to steer military budget cuts toward freezing servicemember pay and raising TRICARE premiums, instead of nixing useless weapons systems. The same is true of “mandatory spending” programs, which in this case sounds like Social Security:

On mandatory spending issues, according to the aide, things are shaping up similarly. “We spent all but 10 minutes on benefits cuts and spent 10 minutes on raising the wage caps.” Though tax hikes aren’t gaining traction, the group is discussing ways to close loopholes, end exemptions, deductions, credits, etc. to limit tax expenditures.

Helping along this drive to slash the social safety net have been Democratic leaders like Steny Hoyer. He has repeatedly maintained that the cat food commission should look into raising the retirement age, which comes out to a 20% benefit cut, to get the program into long-term actuarial balance. (Actually, over the last year, even with the bad economy, the program actually improved its long-term actuarial balance, and would have no problem paying out all scheduled benefits for 27 years, more than you can say about practically any other government program.)

MoveOn has become one of the first progressive groups to fight back and directly take on the House Majority Leader. They have begun to run Web ads calling out Hoyer by name for his remarks on raising the retirement age. The Web ads links to this page, asking supporters to call Hoyer’s office.

Hoyer needs to hear that raising the retirement age to 70 is the same thing as a 20% benefit cut. And it’s totally unecessary. By 2023, Social Security will have a $4.6 trillion surplus (yes, trillion with a ‘T’). It can pay out all scheduled benefits for the next quarter-century with no changes whatsoever. After 2037, it’ll still be able to pay out 75% of scheduled benefits—and again, that’s without any changes. The program started preparing for the Baby Boomers’ retirement decades ago.

Social Security is a winning issue for Democrats, but only if they stand up for the program. Helping conservatives whip up fears about the deficit as an excuse to cut Social Security isn’t just bad policy, it’s bad politics, too. Even a national town hall funded by noted Social Security foe Pete Peterson found that raising the retirement age was hugely unpopular. The same town hall did find one popular way to strengthen Social Security—making the rich pay their fair share. If high earners paid taxes on all of their income, like middle class Americans do, Social Security would be in the black for as far as the eye can see. But conservatives are determined to protect the rich from paying their fair share.

The goal of the action is to get Hoyer to “walk back his statements,” says Daniel Mintz, Campaign Director for MoveOn. “His insistence that big benefit cuts should be on the table is bad policy and it’s bad politics. He needs to stop saying it and he needs to acknowledge what both the Speaker and Senator Reid have said: Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit and it shouldn’t be part of any discussion about deficit reduction. Otherwise he’s just going to be leading Democrats off a political cliff, and I don’t think his caucus will look very favorably upon that.”

Reid, in particular, yesterday reacted to the release of the Trustee’s report by saying it undermined the case of those who want to “privatize or eliminate” Social Security. “It is factually wrong to claim that we can afford more permanent handouts for multi-millionaires, but can’t afford to protect Social Security benefits.” Mintz said that the Trustee’s report “reinforces what folks on our side have been saying all along: Social Security is in good shape and has nothing to do with the deficit.”

As Mintz noted, even Blue Dog Gabrielle Giffords has circulated a resolution opposing any effort to raise the retirement age. The action is designed to get Hoyer on the same side, and to send a message to others on the Democratic side who have flirted with raising the retirement age or any other benefit cuts to Social Security. “If someone is talking up cuts to Social Security, we’re going to call them out on it. It’s that simple.” They might want to give a call to Jim Himes, who appeared at a town hall meeting yesterday with chief Pete Peterson lackey David Walker, and talked about an ” economic day of reckoning.”

During the August recess, MoveOn and their coalition partners in Strengthen Social Security plan to get all elected representatives and candidates “on the record about where they stand,” said Mintz. “Social Security belongs to the American people, and before they go to the voting booths this November, they deserve to know who’s going to protect their retirement and who’s going to cut it.”

Clearly, a progressive group attacking the Democratic House Majority Leader is an escalation in this fight, suggesting that this time, nobody will be off limits if they’re on the wrong side of the policy.