Actually, Sami and I knew all about the marriage penalty when we got slammed a few years back. We ended up having to make a payment plan with the IRS and it took us most of the year to pay down what the government thought we owed them.
The irony is when Sam and I got married we thought we'd get a break on taxes. LOL. Isn't that fucked? It's like a tax on committed monogamy.

Anyways, you can spin Obama's tax ideas many ways. And some times it sounds a bit like socialism. But if the last 8 years has shown us what happens when you give the capitalists the keys to the kingdom, then I'm all for some socialist reform. It's all gone one way for too long. The natural balance requires some yang to all this yin.
My two cents anyways.