Newsobserver.com: “The end is near. The end of the Bush tax cuts that is. Are you ready?

The current tax code allows an estate to pass $5 million per person, $10 million per married couple, tax free. Over that the tax rate is 35 percent. The last time the tax rate was this low was 1931, and moved to 45 percent the next year as a means of coping with the Great Depression, and was as high as 77 percent from 1942 until 1976. But on Dec. 31, 2012, the Bush tax cuts automatically revert back to 2001 levels of $1 million exemption and 55 percent for anything above that.

Yes, the government can change this law. And it may seem more likely with a Republican in office. But House Republican Scott Rigell is actually looking to increase total tax revenues from 16.9 percent to 20 percent of GDP if coupled with a spending reduction from 24 percent to 20 percent, according to Joel Klein at Time Magazine. With the current U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio at 93.2 percent, higher than it has been since World War II when an extraordinary amount of money was being spent, and also on the rise, do you think the exemption will remain so generous and the tax rates so low? Are you willing to bet the gridlock in Washington will end? Are you willing to bet your family business?”