PolitiFact.com
The story:

If you're a smoker, Obama raised your taxes

By Angie Drobnic Holan
Published on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 5:26 p.m.


A new cigarette tax went into effect April 1, and we got lots of e-mail from readers saying it violated a promise Barack Obama made on the campaign trail not to raise any taxes on people who make less than $250,000 a year.

"I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes," Obama said on the campaign trail.

We didn't have a promise like this in our database, so we decided to add it. And after a lot of debate, we decided to rate the new promise Compromise . Read all about our new promise and find out why we decided on Compromise here .

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About this story:

Sources:

See the promise update for sources.

Researchers: Angie Drobnic Holan

Names in this story: Barack Obama

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PolitiFact is a project of the St. Petersburg Times to help you find the truth in American politics. Reporters and editors from the Times fact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups and rate them on our Truth-O-Meter. We’re also tracking more than 500 of Barack Obama’s campaign promises and are rating their progress on our new Obameter. >> More

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