Opinion

Tappan Zee snow job

President Obama’s half-trillion-dollar tax hike (aka the “jobs plan”) went down in flames Tuesday — and now Phase Two of the scheme begins in earnest: Blaming Republicans for the failure.

“If Republicans continue opposing job-creating measures, they risk being blamed for whatever economic reality the country confronts in 2012,” New York’s Sen. Chuck Schumer said shortly after the bill died in the Senate.

But it’s not clear whether there were enough Democratic votes to pass the bill — largely because:

* Even Democrats understand that raising taxes in a near-depression is stupid.

* Nobody knows for sure what the job-tax money would be spent on, anyway.

Take, for example, the Tappan Zee Bridge reconstruction project, one of 14 big-bucks undertakings tabbed this week for what the White House terms “expedited” federal review as part of a “job creation” plan it rolled out in August.

The point is to move the projects quickly “from the drawing board to completion” and “accelerate job creation.”

But if the Tappan Zee project is representative, the whole thing is a charade.

Yes, Gov. Cuomo is playing along — but he knows as well as anyone that, apart from environmental lawyers, there will be precious few Tappan Zee reconstruction jobs anytime soon.

The bridge connects Westchester and Rockland counties over the Hudson River; it has been in terminal disrepair for years, if not decades, and no serious effort to deal with the problem has ever been undertaken.

Yes, Cuomo said Obama’s inclusion of the Tappan Zee for quick review “is a shot in the arm for the project and a major step … [toward] putting tens of thousands of New Yorkers back to work.” He even claimed work could start as soon as next year.

But there’s no consensus on whether the bridge can be repaired, or must be replaced altogether.

Once that’s decided, Albany will still need to complete its own environmental reviews — and then prevail in court against the inevitable lawsuits.

Oh, and did we mention? The job will cost billions — and nobody has a clue as to where the money will come from. (Yesterday, Cuomo jokingly suggested a bake sale.)

No wonder even the Obama folks admitted that Tappan Zee construction work “will not begin for several years.” (Striped bass, whose fate environmentalists fretted over in killing the Westway project along the Hudson in the ’80s, can rest easy.)

Never mind “shovel-ready jobs”; this project isn’t even drawing-board ready.

Cuomo should be ashamed of himself for participating in the president’s “job-creation” scam.

As for Obama and the Dems, well … clearly, the only jobs they care about are their own.

Happily, people seem to be catching on.