Senator Bernie Sanders has renewed his public attack on corporate America, this time targeting Walmart (NYSE: WMT), the largest private sector employer in the United States.
Sanders posted to X on July 23, accusing Walmart of executing $37.6 billion in stock buybacks since 2020, while many of its employees depend on taxpayer-funded assistance programs.
The Vermont senator argued that the buyback figure was large enough to have instead provided every Walmart employee with a $23,550 bonus.
“Walmart pays wages so low that many of their workers need Medicaid and SNAP paid for by taxpayers,” Sanders wrote in the post.
Sanders directed particular criticism at the Walton family, who currently own 39% of Walmart according to Forbes, and whose collective net worth stands at $485 billion.
“The real welfare queen is the Walton family worth $485 billion,” he said, sharpening the political edge of his argument with a phrase historically used against low-income benefit recipients.
Walmart employs 1.6 million people in the U.S. as of the end of its 2026 fiscal year, with Amazon close behind at 1.5 million workers as of the end of 2025.
A study released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that both Walmart and Amazon workers rank among the top three groups of employees receiving Medicaid and SNAP benefits, with Amazon’s figures tripling from 2020 to 2025.
Gig-economy companies including Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart, grouped together in the research, also ranked in the top three, alongside McDonald’s and Dollar General, with findings based on data from 11 states.
“American taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize the starvation wages of large corporations like Walmart and Amazon,” Sanders said in a statement to the Washington Post following the release of the government data.
“It is beyond unacceptable that these corporations, owned by some of the wealthiest people on the planet, are receiving corporate welfare from the federal government,” he added.
As of March 2026, approximately 67 million people are enrolled in Medicaid, while 23 million households across the country receive SNAP benefits.
Stock buybacks remain a legitimate corporate strategy, allowing companies to return value to shareholders, reduce the number of publicly available shares, and improve earnings per share, while also providing a defense against hostile takeovers.
Critics of Sanders’ position argue that higher wages would likely be passed on to consumers through higher prices, and that public companies carry a legal and fiduciary responsibility to act in investors’ interests.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis data shows that part-time employment has risen above pre-pandemic levels, a factor that complicates the argument that low-wage workers can simply seek better-paying alternatives.
Angela Rachidi, a federal safety net expert at the American Enterprise Institute, raised pointed questions about the underlying labor dynamics at play in these situations.
“Certainly part-time work for a fully work-capable person is not going to make ends meet,” Rachidi told the Washington Post, adding, “That begs the question of why are they not working full-time and are they using benefits to kind of supplement part-time work.”
Sanders’ post drew a polarized response online, with some users sharing personal stories of long-tenured Walmart employees still unable to make ends meet on their wages.
One commenter wrote: “My 70 year old cousin has worked for 20+ years in the deli at Walmart. She can’t even afford to retire but struggles constantly to pay her bills in a full time Walmart income. It’s so sad.”
Walmart did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sanders’ claims or the Government Accountability Office findings.
