Should the Hosting Deduction Amount be Raised?

As I have been involved with an international exchange student program in recent months, I have been advised to write to my Congresscritter, in support of the "Youth Exchange Support Act". (See, for example, here.) If you weren't aware of it, if a family (or individual, I suppose) hosts an exchange student for the majority of a calendar month, it qualifies for a $50 deduction on US federal income taxes. This Act is an attempt to raise the monthly deduction to $200.

The main thing I look at when evaluating a proposed tax change is whether it would make the tax code simpler or less simple. It seems to me that such a change would complicate things a bit further, as it would make deductions, and knowing what they are, even more important.

Secondly, who would such a change benefit? Who hosts exchange students? I don't know any statistics, so please supply them if you have them, but I'll guess:

• Middle- and upper- income people
• People with children
• White people
• I am least sure that this applies, but just by going from the above, I am going to go out on a limb and guess Republican people.
  

Now, I am not going to claim that it's the poor need tax cuts at the expense of the rich. The poor pay very little income tax as of now anyway. (**I** pay very little income tax now anyway...) But I'm not sure I'd be in favour of adding another tax deduction primarily for people in my categories above, several of which happen to include myself. If an additional tax deduction is that critical to you, then maybe you aren't prepared financially (or otherwise) to host an exchange student.

I would rather the deduction be completely eliminated, and tax rates reduced ever so slightly so that total government income (or taxpayer outgo) is the same. While I am not going to respond in a group e-mail stating this, I wanted to go on record as being against the proposed tax change.