Updated: 7:38 p.m.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is using the stalled debt ceiling negotiations to motivate supporters to give to the DSCC, although the specific email fundraising appeal sent Thursday was for money to help Democrats protect Medicare and Social Security.

DSCC Executive Director Guy Cecil opens the email by charging that Republicans are willing to bring down the economy to destroy President Barack Obama and that Democrats need money to fight back. Cecil also mentions Obama’s widely leaked comments to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) during a closed-door negotiating session at the White House on Wednesday. The president practically dared the GOP to continue its unwillingness to embrace tax increases as a part of a final agreement to raise the debt ceiling during that meeting.

The email appeal then mentions the creation of an “Emergency Media Campaign” designed to “defend the defenders of Medicare and Social Security and end the political careers of as many Republicans as possible” and asks for help raising $200,000 toward this effort by July 22.

“Don’t call my bluff,” Cecil wrote at the opening of the fundraising appeal. “These were the strong words President Obama had for Eric Cantor, leader of the Congressional ‘Hell No’ Caucus. These Republicans are so bent on destroying the president, they’re willing to create an economic meltdown to try to tie it on the Democrats. The president and Democrats are holding strong against this obstinacy, but in no time, the GOP will go on the attack. If a debt ceiling deal is not reached, they will spend millions blaming Democrats. And we will need to fight back against every single lie.”

“We’re protecting our ideology here,” Cecil wrote later in the email. “Democrats believe that a great nation protects those who can’t protect themselves. We believe in helping the elderly, the poor and the sick. Republicans will attack us for it and try to take it away.”

An email sent by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Thursday evening also began with a reference to the reported clash between Obama and Cantor. DCCC Chairman Steve Israel (N.Y.) appealed to supporters to sign a petition calling for an end to tax breaks for oil companies and the wealthy. “We need to send an immediate message to Republicans. Stand with the President today,” he wrote.