If the federal government decides to lean on Ulster County to make it cooperate with Donald Trump's threatened Triple-D migrant sweep — the detection, detainment and deportation of undocumented immigrants — there's no shortage of purse strings to pull.

And if the Big Sweep doesn’t materialize, there's still the prospect of the austerity and “hardship” that Trump ally Elon Musk has promised, a $2 trillion haircut to the federal budget.

The extent of federal funding here is massive and multi-pronged, a total in 2023 of some $50 million for local agencies, according to a report released Monday from Ulster County Comptroller March Gallagher. Half of that nut comes from the federal Department of Health and Human Services, with most of that, more than $11 million, going to TANF — Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.

Those numbers are dwarfed by Uncle Sam's 2023 payments directly to Ulster residents, chiefly through Medicare ($616 million), Medicaid ($642.9 million) and a whopping $991.4 million in Social Security benefits.

In addition to county government, in 2023 local cities, towns and villages received almost $15 million in federal aid and local school districts more than $51 million. Not included in the comptroller's report are funds that come to local hospitals, nonprofits, fire departments and businesses.

In a phone call with Kingston Wire, Gallagher declined to comment on the situation's political dimensions or speculate on what specific steps to expect from D.C. Social Security and Medicare have long been considered sacred, a political third rail which electrocutes the political careers of anybody who’s fool enough to touch it. But much of the direct funding to the county is for services for the poor, whose political clout is meager.

“I don't know what they're going to plan to do,” Gallagher said. “Elon Musk and Trump were saying we're going to have a period of time where things are going to be much more difficult as they start to make changes.”

Even funds already specifically approved by Congress could be cut, Gallagher noted. “Trump made changes in his first term on money that was supposed to be used [for the military] being used for the border wall.” According to Roll Call, that was about $14 billion of defense funds.

Kingston Wire is waiting on comment on the report from County Executive Jen Metzger and Sheriff Juan Figueroa; this story will be updated when/if those comments come. Ulster County Legislator and Minority Leader Kevin Roberts (R-Plattekill) told us, “I applaud the comptroller's report and I see nothing alarming or foretelling in it.”