A study released Thursday at the Brookings Institution by a group of economists found that income inequality hasn’t just widened in recent decades but the gap appears to be permanent.

The economists, including two from the Federal Reserve Board, tracked the annual tax returns of 34,000 households from 1987 through 2009 and found a rise in “permanent inequality,” or high-earning Americans becoming better off while lower-wage workers became worse off. They found that income inequality is long-lasting and the gap isn’t just the result of short-term unemployment or other temporary issues among lower-wage earners.

So the entire idea - the entire concept the right wing is building their platform on - that poor Americans are just lazy and entitled and need to work harder - it’s completely untrue. This is why cutting programs for the poor while sustaining tax cuts for the wealthy (AKA the fiscal cliff and the sequester) is so abhorrent. There’s only the most infinitesimal chance that you will end up a self-made millionaire if you’re born poor.

Unless you’re ready to defend the idea that every single poor person in America just doesn’t want to work hard, supporting cutting aid in the name of “well it’s better for them because it gives them an incentive to work harder” is absolutely nonsensical.