What Income Level Does the NYT Consider "Affluent?"

A NYT piece discussing the prospects of another budget deal would have benefited enormously by answering this question. The piece referred to a proposal to restructure Medicare under which the government, "could potentially charge the affluent elderly more."

The definition of "affluent" matters enormously. When it came to raising taxes, President Obama and the Republican leadership agreed not to raise taxes for couples earning less than $450,000 a year. If this same definition of "affluent" i...