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Vice President Joe Biden jabbed Republicans on Wednesday, accusing the GOP of offering "no answer" to voters' concerns about the economy.

Biden needled Republicans for blocking a small-business bill in the Senate, which he, like President Obama earlier this week, said was a key part of bringing the U.S. out of its economic doldrums.

The vice president tied the GOP's opposition in the Senate to the $30 billion package to remarks made earlier this summer by Rep. Pete Sessions (Texas), the chairman of House Republicans' campaign committee, who said in a highly publicized comment that the GOP would return to some of the same policies they'd pursued when they were last in power if voters give Republicans control of Congress again this fall.

"You know, Pete Sessions, the congressman who is in charge of the reelection efforts in the House, said that 'When we take control â€" if we take control â€" we're going to go back to the same exact agend! a we had before,' " Biden said on ABC. "That's the agenda that drove us into a deep recession. That is no answer."

Democrats, including Biden and the president, have made warning against a return to Bush a cornerstone of their election-year message.

He called on the GOP, as Obama did earlier this week, to drop its opposition to a $30 billion small-business bill in the Senate.

"Our overwhelming focus is to make sure we continue the tax cuts for the middle class," Biden said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"That's why we hope that when the Congress comes back into session, the Republicans stop filibustering the tax cuts for small businesses … that passed the House," he added.

The $30 billion package boosts lending to small businesses through local banks, but Republicans objected to moving the bill before lawmakers broke for the August recess, complaining that they weren't being offered adequate opportunities to deba! te and amend the legislation.

"The truth of the ma! tter is, at the end of the day, our ability to maintain our national security is, in fact, dependent upon the economy," Biden told CBS's "The Early Show" on Wednesday. "And it's time to focus on that as well."