Vice President Biden jokingly expressed his frustration toward Republicans on Tuesday, accusing them of having insincere concerns about the budget deficit.

Biden jokingly said that GOP protests about the need for a balanced budget made him want to strangle them, which the vice president quickly clarified was a figure of speech.

“If I hear one more Republican tell me about balancing the budget, I am going to strangle them,” Biden said at a fundraiser in Minnesota, according to a pool report. “To the press, that’s a figure of speech.”

President Obama and other members of the administration have ridiculed Republicans as trying to have it both ways on budget issues. For all the GOP’s complaints about the ballooning deficit over the past 20 months, Democrats charge, their plan to extend all tax cuts for top earners would add hundreds of billions to the debt.

“These guys have absolutely no credibility, no credibility on debt,” Biden said.

But Republicans argue that the administration has been reckless in its handling of the economy, pointing foremost to the administration’s $787 billion stimulus plan, which Republicans assert has not created jobs at a massive cost to taxpayers.