What Happens to Your Tax Refund in a Debt-Ceiling Stalemate?

Expecting a federal tax refund? Perhaps you should hurry up and file.

As House Republicans struggle to coalesce around a strategy for embracing an increase to the nation’s $17 trillion-plus debt ceiling so the nation can keep paying its bills, Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee are floating a new bogeyman if the delay continues.

“Failure to act quickly [on the debt ceiling] will endanger our economic recovery and send a signal to American taxpayers that their refunds may be in jeopardy, potentially raising unnecessary panic among families awaiting their tax refunds,” wrote the Democrats in a letter Monday to Speaker John Boehner. The letter was circulated by ranking member Sander Levin and signed by other Ways and Means members.

Read the entire story here.