The Republican-controlled House has approved a budget measure that would cut $5.8 trillion in spending over the next decade. The bill would gut Medicare and Medicaid programs serving the elderly and the poor while granting tax cuts to top-earning individuals and corporations. Democrats say the measure has no chance of passing the Senate. Republicans plan to leverage the measure in talks on reducing the deficit. On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he is confident Congress will vote to raise the federal debt limit.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner: “We’re going to move forward, and again, we want Congress to put in place a comprehensive framework, a balanced framework, that can reduce our long-term deficits. And we’re going to work hard to do that, but if, by the time we need to raise the debt limit, we haven’t worked all that out, Congress still has to raise the debt limit.”