I was talking in the context of "high income earners" - the marriage penalty kicks in at the higher brackets when you have two of them.

I was focusing on "high income earners" because I think they get screwed by defining wealthy people as "high income" instead of "high worth"--to the point where I'm suspicious that the tax code is intentionally geared to prevent "high income earners" from becoming truly wealthy.

Zannon is right, though, that I was /sort of wrong/imprecise/loosely speaking/etc. in saying ALL of the spouse's income goes through the higher bracket.