A global study led by a researcher at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and published in the journal Scientific Reports finds that economic inequality on a social level cannot be explained by bad choices among the poor nor by good decisions among the rich. Poor decisions were the same across all income groups, including for people who have overcome poverty.
You’re misunderstanding, the NYT is anti-Republican. The author means “yet Republicans can still somehow use this impossible claim to drive out good policy”. Notice how it says good policy, not they goodly drive out policy.