V.P. Joe Biden, Wife Visit Phoenix Monday

Vice President Joe Biden predicted Monday during an appearance in Arizona that some Republican lawmakers will support the Obama administration's economic recovery efforts as economic conditions improve.

Biden said there's a fair number of GOP lawmakers who believe the stimulus efforts make sense but face heavy pressure from within their own party to oppose them.

"It's just a very difficult spot to be in," Biden said. "The Republican leadership in the House and Senate have made it real clear: 'Do not support this stuff."'

The vice president said all GOP governors and mayors he has spoken to about stimulus spending have thanked him for the administration's efforts to help lift their economies. "I have yet to have a single, solitary one not thank me," he said.

Biden was in Phoenix to speak at a fundraiser breakfast for Democratic U.S. Reps. Harry Mitchell and Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona and promote the effect of stimulus spending in the state.

By the administration's count, Obama's economic plan saved or created more than 12,000 jobs in Arizona, most of them in education. The state's current budget also includes $1.1 billion of stimulus money, most of which was used to prop up education spending and free up state dollars that cash-short Arizona otherwise would have to spend on its Medicaid program.

As he lauded recovery efforts, Biden commented on Arizona's hard-hit economy and said future economic growth can't be part of a technology or real estate bubble. Arizona, home to 6.5 million people, has lost a 195,800 jobs since September 2008.

"You suffered so badly," Biden said. "You were in the third worst shape of any state in the nation."

He led a panel discussion of four people who benefited from stimulus spending.

Jeanne Simons, a seventh and eighth grade English teacher at Gateway School in Phoenix, said she would have lost her teaching post to budget cuts, but her position was rescued by stimulus spending, which kept her class size at an average of 30 students.

"We were told that we would be looking at 40 to 50 kids in the classroom if we didn't get the stimulus, which as a teacher is completely unmanageable," Simons said.

Biden started with breakfast at the Wyndham Hotel in Phoenix, fundraising for Democratic Representatives Harry Mitchell and Ann Kirkpatrick, who are facing re-election in 2010.

The rest of his day took him to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport to discuss the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and how it is aiding and encouraging small business lending practices, clean technology, and new teaching jobs.

Wife Dr. Jill Biden, a professor at Northern Virginia Community College, toured the GateWay Community College campus and spoke with teachers, staff, and students. She's a professor at a community college in northern Virginia.

FOX 10's Steve Krafft and Diane Ryan report.