This was reported in the Denver Post "Briefing" section just inside the front page. I couldn't find it at the site, but I found this article from May 1 regarding the House's passage of the same thing. Allard and Jeff Sessions want to make the repeal immediate and retroactive to January 1. Of course, the Post didn't call it the Paris Hilton tax cut, but they didn't call it the death tax either. "Allard drafts bill to repeal estate taxes." is what they used with short, neutral reporting. Their columnist obviously thinks otherwise.
http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_2698414"It didn't happen, and I slunk back to working for the man. But I was sympathetic when Congress raised the exemption on the estate tax, until it now applies to just 1 percent or 2 percent of the American population each year. You can pass on $1.5 million in assets to your heirs without their having to pay the tax, and that exemption is scheduled to climb over time to $3.5 million a person in 2009. That would exempt 99 percent of Americans. You would think that is enough.
In the past few years, however, the estate tax has become a target of anti-tax ideologues and conservative eggheads who insist that capital must never, ever, be taxed twice.
According to them, we can't better guard our borders, build highways, educate kids, balance the budget or let some disabled person have a few more bucks in their Social Security check when an abstract economic principle is at stake. No sir.
Naturally, this being Washington, the ideologues were supported by a few very wealthy families that had made a fortune peddling alcohol, candy and other products. They hired the cream of the capital's lobbying corps and salted congressional campaign treasuries with big donations. "