(Adds reaction, details on timetable, background)
By David Morgan and Amanda Becker
WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - With congressional elections looming, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday proposed more deficit-expanding tax cuts, an effort seen by some tax experts as unlikely to become law and geared chiefly toward winning votes.
Even if the initiative fails to pass, it could put Democrats in the position of opposing the new tax-cut plan on the House floor, which Republicans could seek to use to their advantage in the Nov. 6 elections where control of Congress will be at stake.
Under the measure, federal individual income tax cuts approved on a temporary basis by the Republican-controlled Congress and President Donald Trump in December would become permanent.
It would also eliminate the maximum age for some retirement account contributions and let new businesses write off more start-up costs.
House tax committee Chairman Kevin Brady, main author of the "Tax Reform 2.0" package, plans to put it to a committee-level vote on Thursday, with a full House vote expected by Oct 1.
Trump and his Republicans are touting December's tax cuts as a boost to the economy, an important feature of their campaign push to defend their majorities in the House and U.S. Senate against a challenge from Democrats.
Democrats say those cuts mainly helped the wealthy and corporations.
In a statement on Monday, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said: “With version 2.0 of the GOP tax scam for the rich, Republicans want to add even more to the deficit, and even more to the bank accounts of the wealthiest 1 percent."
The cuts passed in December are projected to add an estimated $1.5 trillion over a decade to the federal deficit, the difference between Washington's spending and the taxes it collects.
The new round being proposed by Republicans would add a further $576 billion to the deficit, even taking possibly higher economic growth into account, said the Tax Foundation, a pro-business think tank in Washington.
"Regardless of the merits of the House GOP plan, we view it as a political move ahead of the midterm elections that has no chance of passing Congress in the short term," the investment firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said in a Monday note to clients.
"Adding another several hundred billion dollars to the deficit is something that I think some Republicans are going to really think hard about," said John Gimigliano, who heads federal tax legislative and regulatory services at the audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG LLP.
"Passage is not automatic," he added.