WASHINGTON – Proclaiming that they did not want to give a tax break to the likes of hotel heiress Paris Hilton, House Democrats yesterday pushed a proposal to exempt all but the very wealthiest Americans from a federal tax on inheritances.

“This is not about family farms or small businesses. We are talking about Paris Hilton,” Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat of Massachusetts, said.

Despite several invocations of the leggy blonde who has made a career of flaunting her wealth and hedonism, the House voted 272-162 to permanently repeal the estate tax for all taxpayers.

“Our friends across the aisle want to make sure the Paris Hiltons of the world are fully covered,” Rep. Lincoln Davis, a Democrat of Tennessee, said of the heiress who gained notoriety for appearing less than covered in a widely bootlegged sex tape.

Republicans said the tax was wrong as a matter of principle.

“The death of a family member should not be a taxable event, period,” Rep. Kenny Hulshof, a Republican of Missouri who wrote the bill, said.

The issue now moves to the Senate, where Senator Schumer and Senator Baucus of Montana have been tapped to negotiate on behalf of Democrats to reach a potential compromise on the tax. President Bush has called the repeal of the estate tax “a matter of basic fairness.”

The “death tax” is a “job killer” and a “tax on the American dream” that punishes citizens who work hard and save their money, by taking as much as 46% of the value of the estate left to their heirs, Republicans argued.

Proponents of the tax “want to pry cash out of the cold dead fingers of America’s dead entrepreneurs,” said Rep. Christopher Cox, a Republican of California.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat of California, called the repeal the “reverse of Robin Hood.”

“We’re taking money from the middle class and giving it to the super rich,” she said.

The Democratic proposal to preserve the tax for “the richest one third of 1% of Americans – the Paris Hiltons of the world” was defeated on a vote of 238-194.

The defeated proposal would have kept the estate tax on estates worth more than $3 million that are passed to a single heir, or more than $6 million if inherited by a married couple.

The sponsor of the Democratic proposal, Rep. Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota, said the Republican bill would actually increase taxes for many more Americans than are currently affected by the estate tax because it would allow capital gains taxes to apply to properties that had appreciated by the time of death.

“While they talk about tax relief, they are hurting more than helping,” said Mr. Pomeroy.

Mr. Cox retorted, “You can’t tell us that cap gains tax at 15% in capital gains is worse than 47%.”

The Democrats’ proposed exemption was an “arbitrary line” that would ensnare family farmers and businessmen, while failing to capture the wealthiest people, said Rep. Kenny Hulshof, a Republican of Missouri.

“Billionaires at the top of the Fortune 500 list have a stable full of accountants and lawyers to create an estate plan to thwart the estate tax,” he said.

When Republicans complained that many middle-class taxpayers are ensnared in arduous paperwork to prove they do not have to pay the tax, Mr. McGovern again referred to the great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, founder of the Hilton hotel chain.

“I think she has enough accountants and lawyers to fill out form 706,” he said.

“This bill is bought and paid for by millionaires and billionaires, and any one who votes for it should be ashamed of themselves,” said Rep. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont.

Some Republicans spoke emotionally about their desire to do away with the tax permanently.

“The death tax … is a socialist notion and it needs to go away,” said Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Republican of Texas, who held up a wooden music box that he bought at a forced IRS sale of his great Aunt Lilly’s farm property.

“They sold every item out of their home. If anyone in the family wanted anything, we had to show up at the auction and buy it,” he said.

Democrats said the end of the tax would cost the Treasury $290 billion over 10 years.

Rep. Charles Rangel, a Democrat of Harlem, accused Republicans of continuing to shift the tax burden from wealthy investors to poor and middle class workers, while cutting the social safety net.

“I truly believe that they have tried to manipulate the Tax Code in order to put us in debt so that there would be no money for the entitlements,” he told reporters.