They see it as their best-ever chance
For Bush and his wingnut buddies, this is about ramming a boot up organized labor's ass and slapping the face of an American workforce that they see as fat, lazy and vastly overcompensated.
It's perfectly in keeping with the admin's record...they shamelessly used 9/11 as an excuse to invade Iraq (something they longed to do anyway), and now they are trying to use the economic meltdown to "justify" kicking the legs out from under the American worker...something they long to do anyway.