Huge general revenue liabilities for parts B and D of Medicare remain, but this package is still a start in dealing with growing retirement costs. As said above, the package of taxing all payrolls for Social Security and advancing the normal retirement age is indeed strong medicine.
My approach here has been to unify proposals for the financial reform of Social Security and Medicare on the tax side and for retirement ages. Will the changes be pleasant or popular? No. Will something like them, or worse, be necessary some day? Yes. We might as well begin now thinking about those changes that seem to be the fairest across generations.