Success Quote by Patrick J. Kennedy

Invoking FDR is a kind of political judo: Patrick J. Kennedy borrows Roosevelt's moral authority, then pivots that prestige into an indictment. The line works because it frames policy not as a spreadsheet exercise but as a values referendum. "The test of our progress" is a deliberately high bar, and Kennedy sets it before he even names the target, forcing the listener to accept the metric before they can argue the details.

The subtext is an accusation of upside-down governance. By contrasting "abundance" with "too little", he implies the reconciliation package is structured to protect or expand comfort at the top while offering thin, conditional relief to everyone else. The word "reconciliation" itself carries irony here: in Washington, it's a procedural shortcut to pass major fiscal changes with a simple majority; Kennedy uses it as a moral term and suggests the package does the opposite of reconciling a society split by inequality.

Contextually, this is a Democrat warning his own side (or the broader governing class) against mistaking "growth" for "progress". It's also an attempt to shift the debate from horse-race politics and headline numbers to distributive consequences: who actually benefits, who is asked to wait, who is treated as collateral. Ending with "fails that test as well" is the sharpened blade; "as well" hints this isn't an isolated miss but part of a pattern, a recurring temptation to declare victory while leaving scarcity intact.