Jason Furman, economic policy director for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), called Thursday’s inflation figures “truly shocking.”

The Obama campaign, which has sought to convince voters that an election of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) would equal a continuation of President Bush’s policy, seized on the latest inflation figures.

“America cannot afford four more years of a policy that puts tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations ahead of the real change America’s middle-class families need,” Furman said. “Families have now lost an entire decade’s worth of raises to inflation as weekly earnings adjusted for inflation lie below the level they reached in August 1998.”

The campaign official also touted Obama’s plan to provide American families with a $1,000 rebate to help them pay for the booming costs of food and gasoline.