Online musings: you can't really blame the IRS

So bouncing around on the internet I come across interesting things. Some of them I want to share (and remember myself later). Do you think "online musings" is a good unifying title for these posts? These two relate to taxes...

Do you have tax questions this year? You probably won't be able to get help from the IRS. Congress cut the IRS budget by $350 million below last year and staff reductions mean that the National Taxpayer Advocate estimates that only 43% of callers will be answered by an IRS agent. Oh and by the way, lower staffing and enforcement at the IRS will cost the government $2 billion in lower tax revenue because more people won't pay the taxes they owe.   

Relative position and expenditure cascades--everyone is spending more money in an arms race for relative economic position. This is one big part of why it is harder to be a median incomer earner now than it was 40 years ago. In 1970 you could cover the median rent with 40 hours of median-wage work a month, now it will take you 100 hours. Robert Frank suggests we tax consumption rather than income to blunt this arms race and mitigate the inefficient behavior patterns exacerbated by inequality. That would also encourage more savings and investment. I think it's an interesting idea. 

Winter in DC is the time to prune trees

Brr! It was cold last weekend but I went to a elm tree pruning workshop organized by Casey Trees anyway. They described it as a structural pruning class but since it was set at the National Park Service elm tree nursery and all of the examples were elms it is really an elm tree pruning class.

Then I was frozen solid (did I mention I biked there?) so I stopped in and visited Megan and Saúl and warmed up with several cups of hot tea.

Things I learned at the workshop:

• NPS works hard to grow American elm trees to maintain and replace the rows of elms on the Mall. 
• They can slow Dutch Elm Disease down a lot by constant vigilance and removal of infected branches when they leaf out in the spring. 
• Elm trees grow fast when young and need aggressive pruning the first eight years to set them up with proper shape for a healthy and attractive life. 
• A 2% solution of isopropyl alcohol is the best disinfectant for cleaning pruning tools between trees. I was glad to learn that because I hate using bleach solution--I think it rusts the tools and I always seem to get bleach spots on my clothes. 
• Oil your pruning tools occasionally so they slide through the wood easier. 

Here's some pictures of January in the District.

Looking across the Potomac at my neighborhood

Ice on the Potomac

Up the river to Rosslyn and Memorial Bridge

There's the Washington Monument

Sunset from my bedroom window

The tip of the Washington Monument is behind a building in the center right of the picture if you look closely

Then I made empanadas with a bean filling and a coconut oil crust

I like the way the coconut oil worked in the crust although I think it would go better with a sweet filling rather than a savory one

Cooking the pumpkin puree to dry it out

I need minimally wet pumpkin goop to make good pumpkin gnocchi

It's a major commuting hub for many federal employees...

That was the description of L'Enfant Plaza Metro station yesterday evening on WAMU. This morning on the radio they reported that the smoke was caused by an electric arc on the third rail. It's not clear why the train was stuck in the tunnel and unable to return to the station as it filled with suffocating smoke. The smoke sent more than 80 people to the hospital. One person died at the hospital although I haven't seen any clear report of the cause of death.

This morning the Yellow line crossing the river is still shut down for the investigation.

I was just fine although I did have to get home via a different station than usual. I took the Blue line to Federal Center SW rather than riding the Green line to Waterfront the way I usually would. I'm lucky living so close to multiple stations for the redundancy. There was a giant snarl of emergency vehicles and cars trying to get home after work in all of the neighborhoods around L'Enfant.