File Early and Use Refunds for New TVs?

If a Senate bill just drafted becomes law, we have until April 7, 2009 to buy new televisions capable of receiving digital signals, or to obtain converter boxes that can bring digital signals into our homes. Senate staff members are circulating a bill that sets that date, conveniently after the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament ends, to bring the analog era to a close. The bill also proposes auctioning off parts of the spectrum to private users and a government subsidy for consumers to make purchase of those converter boxes less painful. Read more in a Washington Post article here.