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IT’S FOUL JOKE ON TAXPAYERS

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S January was filled with historic heal ing, euphoria and jubilation.

February was all bright hope amid grim realities.

March? This is Obama’s March of Madness.

The economy lies in ruin. A sea of debt is rising around us. And our hard-earned money is going by the millions into the pockets of the very people whose shortsighted greed got us into this fix in the first place.

In swift response, Obama is busy spending billions, packing on even more debt, raising taxes and crying helplessly about all the wealth that’s being redistributed from our little paychecks into fat bonuses for AIG executives who wouldn’t even have jobs right now if we hadn’t been forced to bail them out.

Despite the fury, Obama with great fanfare filled out his March Madness basketball bracket before flying off to California to parry and jest with Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show.”

In yukking it up with Leno, Obama said one thing he’ll be taking seriously is getting a family dog. After joking that the dog pledge fell into the category of most campaign promises, he quickly added, “No, I’m teasing. The dog will be there shortly.”

Talk about choking on a free throw. Obama was so proud of his basketball picks, he slapped them into the lead spot on the White House Web site, nudging aside less important items about his budget, home foreclosures and job losses.

Meanwhile, at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, terrified members of Congress were doing their best to at least pretend to be stringing up anyone remotely responsible for the AIG bonuses. (Never mind that they were the very same pols who paved the way for those windfalls.)

This presidential fantasizing about college hoops during such ominous times struck such a strange key that one coach said Obama really should keep his mind off the court until he gets his own business in order.

“Somebody said that we’re not in President Obama’s Final Four,” said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.

“As much as I respect what he’s doing, really, the economy is something that he should focus on, probably, more than the brackets.”

In a short period of time, Obama has retreated from a whole host of the very clear promises in his campaign that drew in even Republicans weary of the corruption and criminal waste of Washington.

Vowing to change how this place works, he would wrest control of DC from the greedy hands of lobbyists and put an end to politicians paying off benefactors with plum pots of federal tax money.

But today, two months to the day since he became president, Obama has hired countless lobbyists, surrendered his ban on pork, and made a mockery of responsibility.

Indeed, every year during March Madness, there’s a Cinderella story a team that defies the odds.

Sadly, this year’s Cinderella story is not a Texas Tech or a George Mason but the Obama administration.

It’s turning into a pumpkin right before our very eyes.

churt@nypost.com