This recent article by NPR on the history of tax rates for the wealthy was quite enlightening: Taxing The Wealthy: A Historian's Perspective. The wartime (WWII) tax rates of over 90% carried on to the early 60s... makes the current possible increase look puny:

"If the tax cut for the wealthiest Americans is allowed to expire, those households making over $250,000 would see their income tax rate rise from 33 percent to 36 percent and those making upwards of $375,000 would go from a 35 percent rate to 39.6 percent."

People who worry about the effect on "small business" are showing they don't have the accounting skills to talk about it. A business with an adjusted gross income of more than $250,000 is not a business with any worries (except that maybe they're not tracking expenses properly).

~ Becky in Tucson