Senator Barack Obama picked up comments Senator McCain made yesterday on Bloomberg TV that economic progress has been made under George W. Bush. “I think if you look at the overall record and millions of jobs have been created, et cetera, et cetera, you could make an argument that there’s been great progress economically over that period of time,” McCain said.

Today Obama read the quote to voters in Erie, PA, and incredulously wondered how McCain made such statements. ”Here’s what happened since George Bush took office, here’s what John McCain calls great progress — we went through the first period of sustained economic growth since World War II that saw incomes drop. Eleven million more Americans don’t have healthcare, two million more Americans are out of work, millions of families are facing foreclosure, the poverty rate has gone up, you are working harder for less, you are paying more for tuition, you’re paying more for groceries, more at the pump, that’s what John McCain calls great progress,” Obama said.

“Only somebody who spent two decades in Washington could make a statement as disconnected from the hard times that people are facing all across the america. Only somebody whose campaign is run by Washington lobbyists could think we’re making great progress while so many Americans are struggling,” Obama said.

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The McCain campaign quickly sent out their candidate’s full remarks on Bloomberg, showing McCain qualified his statement. “But that’s no comfort. That’s no comfort to families now that are facing these tremendous economic challenges,” McCain said.

Obama did not quote McCain’s addendum, but minutes before hitting the Republican for saying there was economic progress, Obama himself admitted, “Our economy actually expanded over the last seven years, that’s true.”

His addendum? “But here’s the thing — this is the first economic expansion in which average family incomes actually went down – not up. It’s never happened before. The average family had a thousand dollars less of purchasing power when you take into account inflation then they did at the start of the economic expansion. And so families are working harder and harder just to get by. At the same time you are paying more for everything from a gallon of milk to a gallon of gas to health care to college.”