"The choice is clear; tax relief that goes to people making a million bucks or more and cutting student loans, cutting food support for people who need it and cutting child support," Rep. Sander M. Levin, D-Mich., said.

The Republican majority easily defeated a Democratic alternative that would have trimmed many tax breaks for businesses and allowed the tax cut for stock dividends to expire at the end of 2008.

"If you vote yes for the Democratic substitute, you are increasing taxes over five years by $40 billion," Rep. Bill Thomas of California, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said. "That is the single largest tax increase since they were in the majority in 1993."

Three Republicans voted against the bill, all well-known centrists, Reps. Sherwood Boehlert of New York, Jim Leach of Iowa and Fred Upton of Michigan. Boehlert said that some cuts were warranted but that the break for dividends and capital gains was ill timed.

"I think the argument is pretty good that it is going to the top 1 percent of wage earners at a time when we are struggling to find money," Boehlert said on Thursday.

The Bush administration quickly expressed its clear preference for the House bill over the more modest Senate bill. Indeed, Bush threatened to veto the final bill if it included a provision to hit major oil companies with a windfall profits tax.

"I commend the House of Representatives on passage of this bill, which is critical to sustaining our economic recovery and creating jobs," Treasury Secretary John W. Snow said.

Bush has made a top priority of extending the tax cut for stock dividends this year, even though it is not set to expire for three more years. Administration officials want to make the cut permanent, saying it eliminates the "double-taxation" of dividends at the corporate and individual levels. They also say the cut benefits middle-class families, as well as the wealthy, because half of all families own stocks.

Tax analysts agree that the overwhelming bulk of dividends goes to the top 5 percent of income earners.

The big challenge for Republican leaders in Congress will be hammering out a House-Senate accord. Both chambers would extend a long list of expiring tax breaks that include deductions for payments of college tuition, a "savers credit" for low-income taxpayers, corporate tax credits for research and development and tax write-offs for small businesses to buy equipment.

The House and Senate have also approved $7 billion in temporary breaks for Gulf Coast areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The main substantive difference is that the Senate cut is one-third smaller.

The Senate bill also has two provisions that Bush and House Republicans staunchly oppose, a one-year $5 billion tax on major oil companies and a $5 billion provision that would make it easier to demand higher penalties from people who employ abusive tax shelters.