With the U.S. Congress set to consider raising the nation’s debt ceiling – the maximum amount the country is allowed to owe – Representative Bachmann has sent signals that she intends to make the Congress and the nation at least pause before enacting the seemingly routine procedure.

Help me tiny infant Jesus, I’m kind of glad she’s raising a fuss.

Before you get your granola in a bunch, hear me out: looking at domestic issues solely through an economic lens is like begging for another thumping in 2012.  Only by contextualizing the consequences of austerity will Democrats fight off another Republican wave.

Here’s the problem: less government spending feels good.  Consider the CNN poll – highlighted by Frank Rich – taken in the days straddling the SOTU.  When asked whether they favor cutting government spending, 71% of respondents answer in the affirmative.  Worse, 56% say that GOP plans to do so don’t go too far.  Even that conservative estimate outpaces President Obama’s 2008 vote (53.4%).  Remember how much of a landslide 53.4% felt like?  Wait until you feel 56% sliding against you.

Republicans have framed spending cuts as a gain: cutting spending brings good things.  But losses loom larger than gains.  That’s not just me talking; that’s science.  Nobel Prize winning science.  And that’s where we win.  Because spending cuts mean losses, and people hate to lose things.  Back to that CNN poll.

Asked to choose between deficit reduction and two of Obama’s chief initiatives in Tuesday’s SOTU address – education and infrastructure – respondents ran away from deficit reduction, choosing the pillars of the President’s investment  agenda by 75% and 61%, respectively.  Cutting Social Security (78%) and Medicare (81%) are even bigger losers for the GOP.  Deficit reduction in context is a losing battle. 

Of course, all of this hinges on actual communication from the White House.  Opposition to deficit reduction (if it means cutting Social Security or Medicare) hasn’t changed from the days following the 2010 election, meaning that Republicans can win – and win big – even when the public opposes their core message.  Only a muscular, full-throated description of the losses tied to Republican plans for deficit reduction will carry the day for Democrats. 

So, yes, I’m glad we’re going to have a national conversation about the merits of raising the debt ceiling.  Even if that raises Michelle Bachmann’s profile.  It’s an opportunity to talk about policies we care about, and what we’re willing to pay to keep them.