If he's getting a check and wasting it, I would imagine that he doesn't have the intelligence to know where it comes from.

"The Government" could be any of the following examples:

If he's Wampanoag, he could get regular stipends from the tribe that are from the gaming revenues from Foxwoods. The Mohegans operate the nearby Mohegan Sun casino and have similar payouts.

Other tribes have similar deals that concern mineral rights. In Florida, Texas and Louisiana, it could be for oil.

There are any number of reasons for annual (or quarterly) payouts. But for someone with so cavalier an attitude, I wouldn't take his word for where it *really* came from.