Sorry, but you might as well ask why the President tried to overhaul Social Security. Or tell me that because no President ever suggested we defend Korea or preemptively strike our enemies that it is a bad idea.
The fears of politicians about or the lack of prior implementation of a good idea doesn't make it a bad idea. It just makes it a tough one to implement.
And I'd rather we take that tough road now and save the country than not take the tough road and probably lose what little is left in a few years. I do not want to live through a depression in the U.S. like the ones in Germany of the last few years and Great Britain in the 70s--or in all likelihood, worse. You ask why we should do it? Because it's better for America if we do. It is not better to wait for the collapse in hopes you'll be the party picking up the pieces left, as you seem to suggest. Picking up the pieces of the Desert Inn is not the same thing as picking up the pieces of the World Trade Center, especially when one was done on a timetable where everyone knew what the result would be, and the other was a surprise to the world in its outcome.