Although the fiscal cliff was averted, it’s too early to celebrate.

Republican legislators continue to take aim at working people’s retirement security in order to address the federal government’s ongoing financial needs.

They first attempted to hold the country hostage by refusing to raise the debt ceiling without equivalent spending cuts.

If they had followed through on that threat, the Treasury Department would have been in the position of being unable to pay its bills (for existing programs already enacted into law by Congress — not new ones). The Treasury would have been unable to pay its interest on bonds, which would have cascaded into a worldwide financial crisis; or it might not have had enough money to pay Social Security recipients, government employee salaries or military expenses — each of which would have created its own completely unnecessary nightmare.

President Obama and Democrats held firm against cuts and on Jan. 23, the House Republicans relented and voted to suspend enforcement of the federal debt limit until May 18.

While this buys the country time and breathing room, it doesn’t mean the two sides have come to agreement.

One of the two big items on the Republicans’ wish list is to increase the age at which a person becomes eligible for Medicare from 65 to 67.

This would be a disaster at any time, but even more so during the current period of economic malaise. High unemployment rates, especially for older workers, means that an increase in the age of eligibility for Medicare would leave many older Americans struggling to afford coverage at a time in life when health insurance is needed more than ever. This would seriously affect the middle class.

The second big demand that Republicans hope to ram through Congress is a less generous measure for calculating inflation used in Social Security payments.

This less generous formula for calculating the annual cost-of-living adjustment would change the current consumer price index (CPI) formula into what is known as the chained CPI.

According to the Social Security actuary, moving to the chained CPI would mean an immediate benefit cut.

The Alliance for Retired Americans, the retiree arm of the AFL-CIO to which every retired UFT member belongs, is planning a broad lobbying effort against that move.

“Spending cuts are coming,” House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, told reporters on Jan. 23.

We cannot allow the Republicans to devastate the retirement security of Americans. We must make our voices heard on the issue.

We do not accept the idea that retirement and health care security for Americans who have worked hard their entire lives should be sacrificed.

Be ready, because the threats to these programs have not disappeared — they have merely been put on hiatus until May.