White House does not favor second stimulus now - Biden

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON, July 5 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and his advisers do not favor second stimulus package now to cut the highest U.S. unemployment rate in nearly 26 years, Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview aired on Sunday.

Looking back to January when Obama took office, Biden said: "The truth is, we and everybody else misread the economy ... We misread just how bad the economy was."

"So the second question becomes, did the economic package we put in place, including the Recovery Act, is it the right package given the circumstances we're in? And we believe it is the right package," Biden told ABC's "This Week" in an interview taped during a trip to Iraq.

Asked if another stimulus package was needed, Biden said, "I think it's premature to make that judgment."

Government data last week showed that employers cut another 467,000 jobs in June and the U.S. unemployment rate hit 9.5 percent, its highest since August 1983.

The worse-than-expected job losses renewed fears that recovery from the U.S recession that began in December 2007 could be slow and prolonged.

The White House expected the U.S. unemployment rate to peak at 8 percent when it worked with Congress to push through the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

However, Obama has said he now expects U.S. unemployment to top 10 percent in coming months.