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Retail giant Walmart posted profits of $15.4 billion in 2011, while paying their employees an average salary of $22,100 a year. The current poverty level for a family of four is $23,050.

So how do Walmart employees survive?

The burden falls on American taxpayers to provide food stamps and Medicaid -- at the cost of 2.66 billion annually -- to make up the difference, reports PoliticsUSA.com.

Walmart also tries to profit by encouraging employees to spend their food stamps in Walmart.

Republicans are fighting to keep corporate welfare intact but, at the same time, they want to slash food stamps and Medicaid to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff" at the end of the year.

Representative-elect Alan Grayson (D-FL) appeared on Current TV's 'The Young Turks' on Monday and claimed that Walmart is "the largest recipient of public aid in the country."

Grayson said:
"The taxpayer pays for the earned income credit. The taxpayer pays for Medicaid. The taxpayer pays for unemployment insurance when they cut hours down. And the taxpayer pays for other forms of public assistance like food stamps. I think the taxpayer is getting fed up of paying these things when, in fact, Walmart could give every employee its got, even the CEO, a 30 percent raise and still be profitable."

"In state after state after state, Walmart employees represent the largest group of Medicaid recipients, the largest group of food stamp recipients, and taxpayers shouldn't have to bear that burden. It should be Walmart. So, we're going to take that burden and put it where it belongs: on Walmart."