Woman Berates Man Using Food Stamps in Walmart, Says He’s a "Hillary or Bernie Supporter"

Impact

A video of a woman ranting about food stamps to a man attempting to use them to pay for groceries at a Walmart is going viral, garnering around 840,000 views in the past week and a half.

In the minute-and-a-half-long clip uploaded to YouTube on April 24, the woman accuses a man in the checkout line (who is accompanied by a child) of being a "Hillary or Bernie supporter" and yells about the government taking money out of her paycheck to pay for his food.

"I put in 50 to 60 hour weeks," the man says. "I'm trying to provide for my family."

"You're not providing for it — I am," she shoots back. "The government is. They take it out of my check. Bullshit they don't."

"OK, then contact your local senator and congressman and issue a complaint," says the man, trying to end the conversation. "Vote Republican. I don't know what to tell you. I'm sorry. I don't know what to tell you."

"Oh, trust me — I am not a bleeding-heart fucking liberal," she says. "That ain't gonna happen."

The woman doesn't stop talking, despite the man's efforts to end the conversation, because it's a "free country," she says, and "if I'm gonna pay for all your shit, the least I can do is talk."

Later in the video, she repeatedly trumpets her own intelligence.

"They give it to you so that you vote that way," the woman continues. "I'm not stupid. I have a degree. I'm pretty damn smart."

"You keep saying that over and over again," the frustrated man responds. "You keep boasting about how great you are. Look around — do you see anybody giving a fuck? No, they don't! Why don't you mind your own fucking business?"

The video ends with the man saying, "Deal with it, bitch."

It's not clear at which Walmart the incident occurred or when; other sites were unable to locate the source of the video, and web searches turn up only aggregated versions of the video being spread online before April 24.  It is possible the video is a viral stunt, like another similar video that emerged last year. But it clearly hit a nerve, receiving thousands of upvotes and comments on Reddit and making it to websites like Uproxx, Death and Taxes and Mediaite.

The video also made it to conservative sites like Fox News Insider, after which some Twitter users sided with the woman (it's worth noting that on Facebook, Fox's audience broadly sided with the man being harassed).

Just 10% of the federal budget goes to social safety net programs, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, and only part of that goes to programs like the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. Politifact reports the total amount spent by the feds on food and agriculture likely comes to between one and four percent. By the time you divide government food aid down into the millions of Americans who rely on it to feed their families, it really isn't that much money at all — it's an average of $125 per month per person receiving benefits.

h/t Fox News Insider