Paul Ryan: I will show two years of taxes

Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan said Sunday that he will release two years of his tax returns, the same as Mitt Romney, but ducked a question about how many years of returns he had turned over to Romney campaign officials as part of the vetting process.

“Well, it — it was a very exhaustive vetting process. It’s a confidential vetting process, so there were several years. But I’m going to release the same amount of years that Gov. Romney has,” Ryan, the Republican Wisconsin congressman, told CBS News veteran Bob Schieffer on “60 Minutes” in GOP ticket’s first joint interview since Romney announced his VP pick.

“I’m going to be releasing two , which is what he’s releasing,” Ryan added, referring to Romney, who was sitting next to him.

Ryan said voters aren’t wondering about Romney’s decision to release only two years of tax returns - which has faced a withering barrage of attacks from the Obama campaign - but rather about “where the jobs are.” Ryan said tax returns were a side issue manufactured by Obama to distract voters from the nation’s economic woes.