10.2 percent unemployment

Utah’s unemployment rate may be considerably lower than, say, Michigan’s, but it is staggering to think you could line up all American adults today and find that one of every 10 is without a job.

The president reacted to news of a 10.2 percent unemployment rate on Friday by saying it’s a “sobering” figure.

He gets no argument here. However, he neglected to say one other thing: The $787 billion economic stimulus package has been a huge failure.

I know all the arguments about how Obama inherited a mess. Believe me, if you look back a year or more in this blog you’ll see I had plenty of criticism for the Bush administration’s handling of the economy.

But it’s time for President Obama to begin taking responsibility for his own policies.

On Jan. 3 of this year, while Obama still was president-elect, this newspaper published an Associated Press story on how the stimulus package would be a top priority for his new administration. He said, “Economists from across the political spectrum agree that if we don’t act swiftly and boldly, we could see a much deeper economic downturn that could lead to double-digit unemployment and the American dream slipping further and further out of reach.”

Congress took his cue and passed the stimulus, and here we are with double-digit unemployment.

Maybe it was all inevitable regardless of what Washington did. But it’s a pretty tough sell to say the stimulus has made things any better.