Perhaps because he really DOES want to destroy the country and throw it into chaos, knowing he can get away with blaming the GOP and the Tea Partiers with the help of the network news and big city papers -- and with their help trigger a "popular uprising" which would demand (he imagines) what he's dreamt about all his life -- that he impose a dictatorship with him at the top. You asked. Just sayin'.
Obama is in full 2012 campaign mode on this. He has Boehner/McConnell/Cantor terrified and in a corner now. He tricked them into wasting time in budget negotiations that he knew didn't have a chance to succeed running out the clock to put them in this corner. The House could have been using that time to send the Senate debt extension bills with specific budget cuts. And one that ma es him pay Social Security, America's debt, etc, first if no extension was made.
You have to look closely at what Obama is telling voters in his press conferences. He is saying “I still want a big deal. I still want major deficit reduction. Congress needs to put politics behind them to work together for the American people. But in the end if congress (ie Republicans) cant get their act together and put politics aside, I will reluctantly accept a clean debt ceiling bill with no cuts to keep this country from defaulting on it's obligations” when he knows no big deal is possible. Everything Obama said is a complete fantasy, he is talking to the voters.
He is claiming he is willing to put $4T of cuts on the table with Pelosi’s help for the deal, a $4T that she could never get the votes for in the House, so that he cant even really offer, But it doesnt matter because clueless congressional Republicans didn't know that they were being taken, but they know it now. He established the visual (to voters) that he wants to make a big deficit reduction deal really really bad, but Republicans are saying ‘No’. And clueless Republicans appear unable to control the message.
McConnell/Boehner/Cantor know they blew it, that they were had. That is why they publicly proposed the surrender plan that allows Obama to increase the debt limit as long as he ‘proposes’ spending cuts, with no enforcement. And Obama will stroll in and sign the Republicans surrender, and then tell voters that he really wanted that big deal, but Republicans ‘forced’ him to accept a debt extension with no cuts.
It is a sad day, but what did you expect? You have to know what you are doing to win,