During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised to eliminate "special tax breaks for oil and gas companies, including repealing special expensing rules, foreign tax credit benefits, and manufacturing deductions for oil and gas firms."

None of these things were included in the major tax bill that avoided the "fiscal cliff" in January 2013, and when we asked the American Petroleum Institute whether they had been enacted earlier, he said that none have been changed under Obama. (The spokesman also took issue with Obama"s characterization of these as "special tax breaks," saying that some of the tax provisions Obama cited, such as foreign tax credit benefits, affect many businesses, not just the oil and gas sector.)

Obama still hopes to get the tax changes into law. As recently as his fiscal year 2013 budget proposal, Obama backed elimination of eight oil-and-gas-specific tax breaks. But that was only a proposal, and one that was dead on arrival in Congress.

Since the Obameter rates tangible progress rather than presidential intentions, we rate this a Promise Broken.