(FORTUNE Magazine) – ''What Clinton is trying to do is a step in the right direction. But we're all going to have to swallow a pretty bitter pill,'' says David Butler, an educator and small-business owner. He and his wife, Sara (pictured with daughters Jennifer, 14, and Lindsay, 10), are among the higher-income families ($150,000 to $300,000) FORTUNE surveyed who will get hit by a rise in the top tax, er, contribution, rate to 36%. Families with taxable incomes as low as $140,000 will be pushed into that brand-new bracket. But for those at the very bottom of the bracket, the extra bite might be as little as an additional 1.5% in taxes paid. None of the families felt strapped. But there was a strong sense of fear about the future -- in spite of the Clinton vision of a better one. Says Jane Durgom-Powers, 44, an attorney in Rockford, Illinois: ''None of our parents went to college. We ((husband F. Nicholas, 48, is a dentist)) are the American dream. I worry about that dream for my son.'' Claudia Minard, 39, bought into a small copy equipment business, also in Rockford, last year. Says she: ''Twenty-five employees are a lot of people to be taking care of. Cash flow keeps me awake at night.'' She fears that interest rates will rise, slowing copier sales. The Butlers are university professors -- he at Cincinnati, she at Miami of Ohio -- and part-owners of a medical products firm. They worry about the cost of college for their daughters. He says, ''We're assuming they'll go to neither of the schools we teach at.'' (Where they would attend for free.) Ron Medinger, 48, a marketing executive in Redding, Connecticut, figures he and wife Carol, 51, a teacher, are carrying a total tax load of about $70,000 on the family's roughly $200,000 income. He expects the direct and indirect impact of the Clinton proposal to be another $7,000 to $10,000 bite. The sacrifices? It's more bad news for the automakers, but many families figured they could keep the Olds just one more year. Others plan to pay their extra taxes by economizing on services, such as restaurants and home maintenance. But as one nameless big earner says, ''I don't understand what there is to complain about. I was paying 50% for a long time.''

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: FORTUNE CHART/SOURCES: COOPERS & LYBRAND, ERNST & YOUNG CAPTION: GETTING BY ON $190,000 Families such as the Butlers, left, of Fairfield, Ohio, are in about the same tax situation as the example below, based on a married couple, three kids, both spouses working, owning a home in Westport, Connecticut.