As Matthew Yglesias notes, the State of the Union (which I skipped) includes yet another misleading “average” statistic about the tax cuts:

Unless Congress acts, most of the tax relief we’ve delivered over the past seven years will be taken away. Some in Washington argue that letting tax relief expire is not a tax increase. Try explaining that to 116 million American taxpayers who would see their taxes rise by an average of $1,800.

Actually, the Tax Policy Center estimates that the middle income quintile will received an average tax cut of $814 in 2010 from the 2001-2006 tax cuts. The “average” of $1,800 is skewed upward by the vast tax cuts received by those with the highest incomes.