The Price of the "slight" Tax Increase

In typical popular rhetoric, we were told that a "slight" increase in taxes on those that "could afford it" was the right thing to do. The market continues to question why the Federal Reserve keeps pumping money into the system (QE 1, 2, 3...). The reason is they had to. The following graph show the impact on nominal GDP of the Obama tax increases. Note that the increases were only half of what he originally sought. GDP gas continued its upward trend, but only thanks to the enormous economic stimulus being provided by the Fed.