WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Democratic-controlled Congress on Thursday adopted a $3 trillion U.S. budget for next year as the House of Representatives put the finishing touches on a measure to eliminate deficits by 2012 while exceeding President George W. Bush's domestic spending request.

By a partisan vote of 214-210, the House approved the Democratic budget that sketches out spending priorities for the next five years -- through a new president's term.

The Senate approved an identical measure on Wednesday.

It will be up to that new president -- most likely Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama -- and the next Congress to tackle the huge problems this budget mostly ignores: long-term tax policy and controlling the growing costs of health and retirement benefits for the elderly.

House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt, a South Carolina Democrat, said the budget "charts a new course. It returns the budget to balance, reaching a budget surplus of $22 billion in the year 2012 and staying in surplus through 2013."

He added that it also begins "undoing the damages done by the president's budget" by adding money for child health care and rejecting cuts to domestic programs such as law enforcement, education and energy aid to low-income families.