They are not merely trying to sabotage the economy, in the same way that Hitler didn’t just order the Reichstag burnt.
The point is to plausibly blame their enemies in order to scapegoat them.
“Tea Party terrorists” in Congress who refused to budge on the debt limit will be blamed for the riots that follow a cutoff of welfare benefits.
And by extension, all Constitutional conservatives.
It only works if they can successfully shift the blame. They’re losing that battle so far. If they can’t win that messaging, the last thing they want to do is to take away the goodies from their favored groups.
Of course, they’d cut ‘em off in a heartbeat if they were sure the Tea Party would be blamed.
Actually there is one valuable lesson conservatives can learn from William Ayers.
Its the fact that his violence destroyed his movement. The mistake was in being lenient with them and letting them ooze away to plan for the future.