Category: Daily Caller
Woman goes viral after admitting to being on SNAP benefits for 3 decades
A video showing a woman complaining about her lack of food aid benefits is going viral because she admitted that she’s been on the dole for 30 years.
Maggie Aragon of New Mexico was interviewed on a KOAT-TV news story intending to drum up sympathy for the tens of millions of Americans who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. The program was facing suspension over the ongoing government shutdown.
‘Welfare was meant to lift people up, not trap them forever. When do we start rewarding work again?’
“The first thing I did was grab my phone and call, and when I heard ‘zero dollars,’ my chest went into my throat!” Aragon said to KOAT. “I have depended on those benefits since the 1990s, and it’s detrimental to my life if I don’t get them.”
She told the outlet that she often had to rely on food banks in addition to SNAP in order to survive.
Video of Aragon’s comments went viral on social media, where it garnered millions of views.
Many pounced on the admission to criticize the program.
“I can barely afford my own bills and this useless eater has been on food stamps for 30 f**king years. She’s been living off MY taxes for 30 f**king years. Cut it off. Let them suffer,” author Matt Forney replied.
“Millions of people live entirely as wards of the state, completely disconnected from the world of work and self-sufficiency. How can this be sustainable?” writer Brian Almon responded.
“Look, I feel sympathy for people like this on a human level. But she hasn’t been able to get a job in three decades? This smells of manufactured dependency, not unavoidable hardship,” one user responded.
“Let’s say this woman is 65, which maybe she is … she has good skin, so possibly younger … that means she’s been on food stamps since she was in her early 30s or maybe younger. That is literally insane,” commentator Ryan Girdusky said.
“Thirty years on food stamps says everything about the system, not the person. Welfare was meant to lift people up, not trap them forever. When do we start rewarding work again?” another user said.
Others defended Aragon on the possibility that she was suffering from a disability and was unable to work.
RELATED: Judges rule that food stamp benefits cannot be suspended over shutdown — and Trump responds
At least one police department said it had increased patrols around grocery stores and food banks to avoid robbery and unrest.
“These increased patrols are not in response to any specific incident, but are a preventive measure to maintain public safety, deter theft, and reassure the community that law enforcement is present and ready to help,” reads a statement from the Barstow Police Department.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
‘HORRIFIC’: Jamaica UNRECOGNIZABLE a week after Hurricane Melissa
On October 28, Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm ever to strike Jamaica as a Category 5, made landfall near Montego Bay, unleashing catastrophic damage across the island as winds peaked at 185 mph. The storm demolished thousands of homes, left entire communities without power or running water, and triggered widespread flooding. Drone footage reveals apocalyptic scenes of uprooted trees and flattened neighborhoods. The death toll sits at 28 currently but is expected to rise as rescue missions progress.
Glenn Beck’s nonprofit, Mercury One, is actively on the ground providing relief in several communities across the island.
On a recent episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn spoke with Jack Brewer, founder and chairman of the Jack Brewer Foundation and a Mercury One partner, about the devastation he witnessed in Jamaica.
As the founder of his own disaster relief foundation, Jack has seen his fair share of devastations caused by natural disasters in the 20 years the Jack Brewer Foundation has been operating.
But Hurricane Melissa is the “one of the worst ones” he’s ever witnessed.
“Homes completely leveled — I mean, down to the foundation. And, you know, the entire west side of Jamaica is without water, without electricity. … The infrastructure electricity-wise is pretty old, and so the electric wires are just twisted all in the trees,” he says.
Because Jamaica is “tough terrain,” as much of the country is mountainous, it’s taking relief organizations longer than usual to reach people in need, Jack explains.
The scarcity has caused a lot of chaos. “You see just piles and piles of humans sitting next to each other trying to get water. They’re washing their clothes with the salt water and … there’s fights at the gas pump because people are trying to desperately get enough fuel,” he tells Glenn.
“The most heartbreaking thing,” however, is that downed poles, flooded substations, and uprooted trees blocking repairs mean that “folks haven’t found their family members,” Jack says.
“When I was there, they had just found six more bodies in the area, and they were asking us for cadaver dogs and asking us if we could assist with them.”
And the worst part is: “No one has come.”
“I went to village after village, town after town. No aid organization had come,” Jack says, noting that it hasn’t stopped raining in Jamaica, making travel even more difficult.
With homes and shelters decimated and waters continuing to rise, Jack says the Jamaican people, many of whom are sleeping outside, are now facing “waterborne diseases and mosquitos.”
Right now, the best relief organizations can do is help with temporary solutions, like delivering tents and insect repellent.
“Can you compare this to what we saw in North Carolina?” Glenn asks, referencing Hurricane Helene, which ravaged parts of North Carolina in September 2024 and caused billions of dollars in damage.
“No question,” says Jack. “The difference is, in North Carolina, we have something called insurance, and we have helicopters, and our fellow Americans can get there. … In Jamaica, they don’t have that option. … The people were already living in poverty.”
But praise God, there is joy that transcends all circumstances. “The love of God and the thankfulness and the smiling and the worshipping that was happening in these towns I was in … it lifted me up,” Jack says. “It humbled me to see people that had literally lost it all, but they were so thankful, and they said, ‘You know what? We’re living to see another day. God has given us a chance to recover. We have our life; we have our children.’”
Glenn encourages his audience to donate whatever they can to Mercury One and notes that 100% of donations go to relief initiatives.
“Go to mercuryone.org, and help us help people,” Glenn says.
Want more from Glenn Beck?
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Read Handwritten Notes On Clinton’s ‘Plan To Tie Trump’ That James Comey Left In An FBI Safe
‘HRC plans to tie Trump’
Pro-Shutdown Democrat Blames GOP When Her State’s Main Industry Begs For Government To Reopen
Democratic Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen is continuing to embrace Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s shutdown strategy despite major tourism-related businesses and hotels in her state begging for relief. Rosen blamed Republicans for the 34-day shutdown when pressed about nearly 500 travel industry-related groups — including 12 located in Nevada — calling on Congress to pass […]
Museum Hit In Brazen Heist Reportedly Committed Classic Security Blunder
‘able to facilitate damage or even theft of artworks’
What Has Congress Actually Done During The Shutdown?
The government remaining shut down for over a month has still not stopped the Senate from going about its business. Congress is poised to break the record for the longest shutdown in U.S. history on Tuesday night, after Senate Democrats blocked a bipartisan GOP-backed clean spending bill to reopen the government 13 times in a row. During […]
Pity equals power for the progressive class
American politics once revolved around ideas — tax reform, national defense, energy independence, health care. But one side of the aisle has abandoned the work of persuasion for the theater of grievance. The modern left no longer campaigns on what it can build but on what has supposedly been done to it.
Victimhood has become the left’s organizing principle. The emotional currency of grievance has replaced the intellectual currency of ideas. That shift isn’t just cynical; it’s corrosive. It undermines the American spirit of self-reliance, accountability, and perseverance — the virtues that built this country in the first place.
Let others compete for who has suffered most. America’s story has never been written by its victims — only by its victors.
Consider New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Last month, he delivered a tearful campaign speech recalling how his “aunt stopped taking the subway after 9/11 because she didn’t feel safe in her hijab.” The story went viral. Media outlets rushed to elevate it as another morality play about post-9/11 Islamophobia.
Within days, however, fact-checkers discovered that the “aunt” didn’t live in New York City — and wasn’t his aunt at all but his father’s cousin. The story collapsed, but the damage was done.
Even if the tale were true, Mamdani’s framing was an insult to truth. His version turned the “victim” of 9/11 into someone who merely felt uncomfortable. The real victims were the firefighters who ran into burning towers, the police who breathed toxic dust for months, the passengers of Flight 93 who fought back knowing they would die, the families who never saw their loved ones again. To recast that national tragedy as a story about personal unease is moral inversion.
Privilege posing as persecution
Mamdani is no symbol of oppression. He was born in Uganda to two global elites: filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani. Educated at elite institutions, including Bowdoin College in Maine, he embodies privilege — not persecution.
He’s not alone. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has built her career on the same inversion. A graduate of Boston University, raised in a comfortable Westchester suburb, AOC is a product of the meritocracy she derides. Her father was an architect; her family owned a home. Yet her political persona depends on playing the perpetual underdog — the marginalized woman of color silenced by “the patriarchy.”
When criticized, she doesn’t answer with arguments but with emotion. Dissent becomes “hate.” Opposition becomes “bigotry.” As Newsweek once put it, “AOC’s weaponized victimhood undermines women.”
Grievance as status
This inversion — privilege masquerading as oppression — reveals something deeper about the left’s political psychology. Victimhood now confers moral authority. The more wounded you appear, the more virtuous you become. Pain is power.
But grievance politics reshapes the citizen’s role in democracy. Instead of the proud American who builds and contributes, we get the dependent petitioner, perpetually wronged and perpetually in need of government rescue. The state becomes therapist and provider, not guardian of liberty.
That’s why so many progressive campaigns sound like group therapy sessions. The message isn’t, “Here’s how we’ll improve schools or secure the border.” It’s, “Here’s who hurt us, and here’s who must atone.” The goal isn’t reform — it’s retribution.
The vanishing of virtue
When politics becomes a contest of feelings, truth and accountability vanish. Success is no longer measured by safer streets, better jobs, or stronger families, but by how “seen” or “unsafe” someone feels. Emotional satisfaction replaces objective progress.
But the American promise was never about comfort. It was about courage — the willingness to build, to sacrifice, to endure. This nation doesn’t owe its strength to grievance but to grit.
Think back to 9/11. The real victims weren’t the politically convenient ones. They were the firefighters who ran toward the towers, the police who never came home, the husbands and wives who never got to say goodbye, the children who grew up without parents. To twist their sacrifice into a sermon on discomfort dishonors them.
RELATED: The left’s new religion has no logic — and AOC is its perfect preacher
Photo by Bloomberg / Getty Images
From grievance to gratitude
The contrast couldn’t be clearer. One version of politics says, “I was wronged, therefore I deserve.” The other says, “I was blessed, therefore I will serve.” The left has built a moral economy where pain is currency. Conservatives must offer a different creed — one grounded in purpose, gratitude, and resilience.
Freedom, not fairness, defines America’s promise. Adversity refines character; it doesn’t define it. As the nation nears its 250th birthday, we should remember who we are — a people forged by hardship and lifted by hope.
Let others compete for who has suffered most. We’ll compete for who can spread the most good. America’s story has never been written by its victims — only by its victors.
