Word: figment
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Supporters argue rightly that the money would go where it was intended, building roads and upgrading airports. But the supposedly untapped funds are actually an accounting figment. Using them would increase the deficit or force greater cuts in other programs. Budget Committee chairman John Kasich and Appropriations chairman Bob Livingston are vehemently opposed. Attempts by Newt Gingrich to reconcile them and Shuster have come to naught. Meanwhile, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan broke with his custom of staying neutral to advise against passage...
...spaceship--let's say it wanted to find out whether a particular bodily fluid might be effective on the other planet in cleaning windshields without leaving streaks--it would obviously look for someone open to believing in its existence, rather than someone who dismissed extraterrestrial visitors as the figment of someone else's imagination...
Otherwise, when the alien said, "Come with us into our spaceship," the earthling might just say, "Buzz off, figment," and go on about his business, leaving the extraterrestrial just standing there, truly embarrassed...
...have never been a part of the Weldfund-raising machine," bachrach says. "The ideathat I've raised thousands of dollars for Weld isa figment of someone's imagination...
After all, they reason, the racism they hear about may be just a figment of minority students' imagination. Regardless of the facts in any particular case, some people find it much easier to believe that Black sorority women were oversensitive than to believe that a white man made racist remarks...