WASHINGTON — After years of complaining that Republicans were cluttering the tax code with provisions that enriched the wealthy, leading Democrats in Congress now want to add tax credits and deductions to benefit narrow groups of largely middle-class constituents.
Among potential beneficiaries: people with elderly parents in nursing homes, new parents, college students, volunteer firefighters and organ donors.
All these goodies raise questions about how the Democrats can give away tax revenue while keeping their pledge not to deepen the government's deficit.
"A lot of these provisions may be well-intentioned," said Leonard Burman of the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank. "But they drain the government of precious resources," thus aggravating the deficit or forcing Congress to raise taxes on everybody else, he said.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) offered an expansive package of tax credits last month, designed to deliver $80 billion in tax savings to middle-class families during its first four years.
Schumer's legislation would double the $1,000 tax credit for children younger than 2 and expand the dependent-care tax credit to families with seniors living in institutions. The maximum credit -- 35% of expenses, capped at $3,000 for one dependent and $6,000 for two or more -- would be available to families with incomes of up to $75,000, not just $15,000 as now.
His bill also would give undergraduate and graduate students $2,500 more in tax credits.
The legislation's most expensive provision involves extending through 2008 the exemption of about 20 million people -- those with incomes of roughly $75,000 to $100,000 -- from the alternative minimum tax, a tax originally aimed at the very wealthy.
Schumer's bill was modeled on proposals by Third Way, a liberal Washington think tank that President Clinton helped found. Jim Kessler, the group's vice president for policy, said the goal of the tax credits was to help families with incomes of $40,000 to $120,000.
That group includes "people who are too wealthy to benefit from government grant programs and entitlement programs but are not earning enough so they can realistically afford paying for college and caring for kids and elderly parents without a lot of hardship," Kessler said. "These are families that are working and are generally successful, but they've got some huge humps to get over that put enormous pressures on their lives."
