We didn’t get to this impasse in Washington, D.C. in the last two weeks.   The situation has been developing since the passage of two versions of a budget back in March, 2013.   The timeline so far looks like this:

January 1, 2013: House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announces that he is no longer going to negotiate directly with President Obama.  [The Hill]

January 18, 2013: The Republican Retreat at Williamsburg, VA reported as yielding recommendations that a short term debt extension could be a bargaining point, but the “full faith and credit of the U.S.” should not be risked. However, conservatives were divided about the debt limit. [NY]

February 14, 2013: Freedomworks publishes guidelines for a coalition letter including:  “Conservatives should not approve a CR unless it defunds Obamacare.  This includes Obamacare’s unworkable exchanges, unsustainable Medicaid expansion, and attack on life and…