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{{#badges:FTD}}For more than 70 years, '''U.S. Social Security''' has guaranteed a level of economic security for retired workers. Despite Social Security’s popularity and effectiveness, it came under attack under President George W. Bush, who made privatization of Social Security a priority for his second term.<ref>Jim Vandehei, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39791-2004Dec31.html/ A Big Push on Social Security], ''Washington Post'', December 31, 2004.</ref> The attack on Social Security has re-emerged as deficit scolds see the financial crisis as an opportunity to weaken the program by proposing deep cuts in benefits and raising the retirement age.
Removal and replacement of Fix the Debt badges
Cutting Social Security, [[Medicare]], and [[Medicaid]] -- which is advocated under the more benign-sounding phrase of "Entitlement Reform" -- is a core policy platform of the Campaign to "Fix the Debt."<ref>[Ned Resnikoff, [http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/01/10/meet-the-high-priests-of-austerity-politics-fix-the-debt/ Meet the high priests of austerity politics: ‘Fix the Debt],' ''MSNBC'', January 10, 2013.</ref> The [[Portal:Fix the Debt|Campaign to Fix the Debt]] is the latest incarnation of a decades-long effort by former Nixon man turned Wall Street billionaire [[Pete Peterson]] to slash earned benefit programs such as [[Social Security]] and [[Medicare]] under the guise of fixing the nation's "debt problem." Fix the Debt co-founders [[Erskine Bowles]] and [[Alan Simpson]] included deep cuts to Social Security in their report after the [[Simpson-Bowles Commission|National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform]] failed to agree on a plan. Fix the Debt financier [[Pete Peterson]] has invested in multiple efforts to suggest that Social Security is a fiscal calamity that could "threaten American values and traditions."<ref>Columbia University Teachers College, [http://understandingfiscalresponsibility.org/about/ Understanding Fiscal Responsibility: About], university program website, accessed February 2013.</ref>
