Word: cushions
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...seems like only a few months ago that the federal budget surplus was unfurling like a vast, star-spangled security blanket, a cushion of cash that stretched farther than the eye could see. Wait. It was only a few months ago. In April the White House projected a surplus of $281 billion for this fiscal year and $3.4 trillion for the next 10 years--enough to fund Bush's tax cuts and Congress's spending programs, missile defense and school reform, private Social Security investment accounts and a prescription-drug benefit for seniors, with a ton of money left over...
...wears a burgundy top, a traditional, collarless Northern Thai vestment, and sits on a cushion on the soft teak floor under a pavilion next to a bubbling stream while young women in ornate sarongs parade past with plates of spicy chicken, sticky rice and boned freshwater fish. A famous oenophile, he sips an expensive Bordeaux, brought to Chiang Mai from his own cellars. His entourage, a collection of cronies and political allies for whom Thaksin has been criticized, is gathered around him at other low tables. For a putative reformist, he has surrounded himself with numerous politicians associated with corruption...
...that kids are doing this well despite the way they are being raised rather than because of it. Maybe virtue is their form of adolescent rebellion against parents who indulged every vice. Or it could be that the get-down-on-the-floor, consult- the-child, share-the-power, cushion-the- knocks approach isn't entirely wrong-headed. Perhaps those tendencies have done a lot of good for kids, and what's called for is not a reversal but a step back from extremes...
...avoid sanctions from loss of federal funds to, at the extreme end, closure. The House version gives schools a full 12 years and states would be free to come up with their own definition of the yearly progress schools must demonstrate. Although either plan seems to provide an ample cushion, a growing coalition of teachers, education officials and even some White House staffers is now arguing that the current legislation would deem far too many schools failures - on the order of 100 percent in some areas...
...YOUR SEVERANCE. With job searches taking just more than three months on average, those with a brief severance period don't have much cushion. But a long severance period can give jobless people a false sense of security. Too often they take what they believe is a well-deserved break from the rat race. Employers are extremely wary of applicants with that kind of gap in their resume. A job seeker is like lettuce to the employer. The fresher you are to the hunt--a week or 10 days off to get the resume tuned up--the better. When...