BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) - Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan says the way to help the middle class recover from the past four years is to elect Mitt Romney president in November.

Ryan was responding to a comment Tuesday by Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden said during a campaign stop in North Carolina that the middle class "has been buried the last four years." And he asked how Republicans could justify raising their taxes as a result.

At his own campaign appearance in Iowa, Ryan said he and Romney agree that Obama has been bad for the middle class.

Said Ryan: "We agree. That means we need to stop digging by electing Mitt Romney the next president of the United States."