Speaking to a crowd in Ocala, Fla., Biden, a U.S. senator from Delaware, said McCain, the Republican presidential nominee and a U.S. senator from Arizona, would like Bush provide tax breaks for companies sending jobs overseas but "no relief for 100 million middle-class families."

Seeking to tie McCain closely to the unpopular president, Biden derided McCain's efforts to cast himself as a reformer, saying, "I know Halloween is coming. I know Halloween -- but John McCain dressed up as an agent of change, that costume just doesn't fit, folks."

Biden said McCain's recent criticism of Bush's budget and fiscal policies come only after "for the better part of the last year, (he) has been telling us we've made great economic progress under George Bush."