The Senate today approved, and President Obama signed, a debt ceiling package that will cut trillions from the budget, without raising one dime in revenue (though the super committee that the legislation creates could technically decide to craft revenue-raising provisions later). Though President Obama had continually called for a “balanced approach” to deficit reduction, the bill he signed today is undoubtedly a conservative one, with Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) crowing that he got “98 percent” of what he wanted.

The New York Times’ Nate Silver argues that Obama could have gotten more out of the deal, as even the House Tea Party Caucus — which had taken a very hard line against raising the debt ceiling — fell in line in the end:

Almost three-quarters of Republicans voted in the affirmative. And even the Tea Party came around in the end. By 32-to-28, members of the Tea Party Caucus voted for the bill, despite earlier claims — which now look like a bluff — that they wouldn’t vote to raise the debt ceiling under any circumstances.

These results seem to suggest that Mr. Obama left something on the table. That is, Mr. Obama could have shifted the deal tangibly toward the left and still gotten a bill through without too much of a problem. For instance, even if all members of the Tea Party Caucus had voted against the bill, it would still have passed 237-to-193, and that’s with 95 Democrats voting against it.

Of the GOP freshman class, 59 members voted in favor of the deal, with 28 opposed.

Tea Partiers had said that everything from a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution to corporate tax cuts were required in return for their vote to raise the debt ceiling — if they were willing to vote to raise it at all — but still, many of them came over without such pieces being in the bill (which only requires that a vote be held on a balanced budget amendment). Last week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) excoriated Tea Partiers for their “bizarro” and “foolish” debt ceiling demands.

ThinkProgress filed this report from the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, CO.

During a major policy address in June, former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain laid out his three economic guiding principles. Cain’s first tenet: “Production drives the economy.” Yet looking at his campaign merchandise, Cain appears to be more interested in driving the economy of Honduras than the United States.

An ABC investigation found that Cain’s t-shirts, which the campaign sells at $30 apiece, are manufactured in Honduras rather than the United States.

ThinkProgress was in attendance when ABC’s Arlette Saenz confronted the former pizza executive about his campaign’s decision to manufacture t-shirts in Honduras rather than in the United States. Cain downplayed the concern, saying “I don’t have a political statement with respect to that.” When asked if he would consider producing his campaign’s t-shirts in the United States instead, Cain dismissed the idea out of hand, saying there was no “compelling reason” to do so:

SAENZ: This is one of your t-shirts. If you look at the label, it says that it’s made in Honduras. Were you aware that that was going on?

CAIN: No, I wasn’t aware that it was made in Honduras. I just was aware that it was Fruit of the Loom, which is an American company. So where they buy their t-shirts, no, we did not look at that. [...] The fact that it was made in Honduras, I don’t have a political statement with respect to that.

SAENZ: Would you consider changing your campaign gear that isn’t made in this country?

CAIN: It depends on the reason why somebody would want me to change it. Changing it because someone says it was made outside the United States alone isn’t a reason. If I had a compelling reason, yes. But if I don’t have a compelling reason, no. You want to know why? We live in a global marketplace, and we’re not going to reignite the growth in this country with any sort of protectionism.

Watch it:

Cain isn’t the only Republican presidential campaign to get caught selling merchandise that wasn’t manufactured in the United States. Last week, Newt Gingrich’s campaign was confronted for selling t-shirts produced in El Salvador. (Gingrich blamed the t-shirt snafu on his campaign’s volunteers.) Cain, on the other hand, was unfazed by his campaign’s decision to boost Honduran production in lieu of American production.

Months ago, Cain chose this as his presidential campaign slogan: “Is America Ready?” When it comes to producing t-shirts, Cain’s answer is clear: not yet.