Reply #9: They risk losing the support of the largest block

[The Wizard]

of the population, and they're politically smarter than that.
Cutting unnecessary military spending would go a long way to making a better reality and living standard for the vast majority rather than the moneyed elites. We might want to consider cutting off all spending on contractors/mercenaries.
It's also time to make large corporations pay their fair share for the services rendered by government. They've already outsourced most of the jobs anyway, so their threats are foot stamping and tantrums.
Maybe it's time for a realignment with a redistribution of wealth. It's time to narrow the gap between the rich and poor, not widen it.
The Interstates provide a quick and direct escape route if times get desperate enough for the poor to go into the suburbs and commit mayhem.
Social unrest of the real variety, not the trumped up teabagger type, is a possibility that the powerful elites must consider before they try expanding the gap between the wealthy and the rest of us.
One alternative for the government is to bring back the mercenaries from Iraq and Afghanistan and use them as a militia to protect the wealthy.