The U.S. House passed on Thursday the Permanent Estate Tax Relief for Families, Farmers, and Small Businesses Act. Opponents called it one of the most misnamed bills to ever clear the chamber, noting that it does the opposite of relieving tax burdens on small businesses and farmers.

The matter passed 225 to 200. It heads now to the Senate.

Speaking on the House floor, Northwest Missouri Congressman Sam Graves said the legislative body continues to bail out Wall Street while ignoring the hardships of small companies and the families that run them.

"Today we have yet another bill on the floor that ignores the little guy," the Republican lawmaker said. "The bill does not take into account capital intensive small firms, whose expensive equipment will cause them to be subject to this onerous tax.

"If Congress was serious about helping small businesses in this economic downturn, we would be debating a bill on the floor that repeals the death tax."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, the Maryland Democrat, said the bill strikes a fair balance.

"This bill simply continues present law at current rates and exemptions," he said of the measure. "The estate tax also sets a limit on the concentration of inherited wealth from generation to generation which, at a time when this country's middle class is truly struggling, would make inequality even starker and more damaging to our country's social fabric."

Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins, the Republican who represents Northeast Kansas, voted no on the measure.

Adam Nicholson of a group called Estate Tax Truth said the close vote (26 Democrats broke ranks with the majority party) indicates a broader resentment of the estate tax.

"The death tax isn't about the poor and middle class versus the super rich, it's about family farms and businesses versus corporate welfare for big insurance; it's about Main Street versus Wall Street," he said.