Republican presidential contender Michele Bachmann said Thursday there is a growing fear among Americans about an "unstoppable decline" of the United States and a "rise of the Soviet Union."

The Minnesota lawmaker told conservative radio host Jay Sekulow the recent compromise among congressional Republicans and President Obama to raise the legal U.S. borrowing limit could give fresh vigor to Ronald Reagan's "evil empire."

"What people recognize is that there's a fear that the United States is in an unstoppable decline. They see the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the Soviet Union and our loss militarily going forward," she said.

"And especially with this very bad debt ceiling bill, what we have done is given a favor to President Obama and the first thing he'll whack is five hundred billion out of the military defense at a time when we're fighting three wars. People recognize that," Bachmann told Sekulow.

The Soviet Union fell apart two decades ago and is now 15 distinct nations.