GOP mocks Biden over 'buried' middle class

The Republicans are having fun with a mangled and mistaken sentence from Vice President Biden.

In criticizing GOP opponent Mitt Romney and running mate Paul Ryan, Biden told backers today in Charlotte, "How can they justify raising taxes on the middle class that has been buried in the last four years?"

The Republican Party responded with an e-mail that was headlined: "Biden Admits That The Middle Class Has Been 'Buried' Under Obama.

Romney's campaign also weighed in. The candidate himself tweeted, "Agree with @JoeBiden, the middle class has been buried the last 4 years, which is why we need a change in November #CantAfford4More."

Biden was talking about Romney's -- and Ryan's -- plans for more tax cuts, which he said would lead to budget cuts and tax hikes affecting middle-class Americans. The vice president said GOP plans would return to policies of the George W. Bush administration that punished the middle class.

Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith in turn mocked Romney's campaign for "another desperate and out-of-context attack"

Said Smith: "As the vice president has been saying all year and again in his remarks today, the middle class was punished by the failed Bush policies that crashed our economy -- and a vote for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan is a return to those failed policies."

Biden himself said a second event in Asheville, N.C. "The middle class was buried by the policies of Romney and Ryan."