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Texas Gov. Rick Perry came under heavy attack at Monday night's CNN/Tea Party debate, with top rivals challenging him on whether he thinks Social Security is unconstitutional and accusing him of signing an executive order to require inoculations of young girls that benefited a drug company that donated to his campaign.
The broadsides launched at Perry showed how his rivals were trying to weaken his front-running status since joining the campaign last month.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has criticized Perry in the past week for calling Social Security a "Ponzi scheme," immediately challenged the Texas governor to say if believes the system is unconstitutional and should be turned over to the states to run, as called for in a book by Perry that came out last year.
Perry responded that he disagreed with the original decision more than 70 years ago on how to set up Social Security, but that the benefits coming to senior citizens today and people who will become eligible soon should be protected.
When Romney persisted on the constitutionality question, Perry said the nation needed to have a serious conversation on the issue, which prompted Romney to cut him off by saying "we're having that conversation right now, governor."
Perry then accused Romney of trying to scare senior citizens by focusing on the "Ponzi scheme" statement, and the two continued to trade jibes on the issue.
Other candidates then joined in, with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich earning applause from the crowd of conservative tea party supporters by saying the issue wasn't about who was scaring senior citizens when, he said, President Barack Obama was scaring the nation every day.
Later, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who has seen her support erode since Perry joined the race, called the cancer vaccination order signed by the Texas governor "flat-out wrong."
"We cannot forget that in the midst of this executive order there's a big drug country that made millions of dollars because of this," Bachmann said, adding that a former Perry aide was a lobbyist for the company and asking if the issue was about saving lives or money.
Perry responded that the company, Merck, made a $5,000 contribution and said to Bachmann: "If you're saying I can be bought for $5,000, I'm offended."
"I'm offended by what happened to all those girls, " Bachmann said of the required vaccination of girls as young as 12 against cervical cancer.
Perry also said that the executive order was a mistake and he should have worked with the legislature instead of issuing it. He also noted the order gave parents the right to opt their children out of the vaccination.
His answer drew a sharp response from former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, another competitor for tea party conservative support, who said there was "no government purpose served by having little girls inoculated" by force of law.
The debate at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa gave the other candidates on the stage a chance to change what many are portraying as a two-person race between Perry and Romney.
CNN and the Tea Party Express, a leading national tea party organization, teamed up to put on the event, with questions coming from the moderator, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, as well as from tea party activists, supporters in the audience and voters at locations in Arizona, Ohio and Virginia. Other participants included Gingrich, Bachmann, Santorum, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former Utah Gov. and former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman and former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain.
Perry, the new guy in the race and the current front-runner in the national polls, and Romney, the previous front-runner in the GOP battle, sparred over jobs and Social Security at a debate last week at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
They continued the battle Monday. When Blitzer noted Perry's success creating jobs in Texas, Romney cited what he called advantages to accomplishing such success in that state, including no income tax, lots of oil and a Republican-controlled state legislature.
"If you're dealt four aces, that doesn't necessarily make you a great poker player," Romney said in the best zinger of the early going.
If voters believe all of America is like Texas, then they should choose someone with success in Texas, Romney continued, adding that if voters believe the nation needs to be turned around, "that's what I do."
Perry responded to Romney: "You were doing pretty good until you got to talking poker."
In the California debate last week, Perry stood by earlier comments that Social Security is a "Ponzi scheme" and that it was a "monstrous lie" to tell young workers that the 74-year-old pension system would be there when they retire.
Romney fired back, saying that "under no circumstances would I ever say by any measure it's a failure. It is working for millions of Americans, and I'll keep it working for millions of Americans."
Since then, both candidates have swung at each other through e-mail and social media. In a radio interview, Romney went a step further.
"If we nominate someone who the Democrats can correctly characterize as being opposed to Social Security, we would be obliterated as a party," he said.
Perry's team fired back, noting that in Romney's policy book "No Apology," the former Massachusetts governor compared the management of Social Security to a felony. When that issue came up Monday, Romney said Perry was misquoting him from the book.
As for Romney's charge that Perry would possibly abolish the popular government program, Perry's team says that the Texas governor believes that Social Security must be protected for current beneficiaries and those nearing retirement age.
In a a USA Today op-ed released Monday by Perry, he declined to use the phrase "Ponzi scheme" but called for a "frank, honest national conversation about fixing Social Security to protect benefits for those at or near retirement while keeping faith with younger generations, who are being asked to pay."
Bachmann, who is vying for tea party support with Perry, also has tried to inject herself into the Social Security discussion.
Monday's debate is crucial to Bachmann, who has dropped in national polling since Perry launched his campaign on August 13, the very same day that she won a crucial straw poll in Ames, Iowa. She had strong debate performances at presidential debates in New Hampshire in June and Iowa in August, but she didn't shine to the same degree last week.
What makes this debate different is its connection to the tea party, a 2 1/2-year-old conservative movement that calls for lower taxes and less government spending and regulations. The movement was extremely influential in last year's GOP primaries in the midterm elections, and strong support from tea party activists helped the Republicans win back control of the House of Representatives.
"Because of these successes, it only makes sense that the tea party would engage in presidential politics," said Tea Party Express chair Amy Kremer. "We are not going to just accept what the Republican Party wants to give to us. The people across America are tired of party politics, so it will be the people of this movement that will determine the next Republican nominee."
Source: CNN
The broadsides launched at Perry showed how his rivals were trying to weaken his front-running status since joining the campaign last month.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has criticized Perry in the past week for calling Social Security a "Ponzi scheme," immediately challenged the Texas governor to say if believes the system is unconstitutional and should be turned over to the states to run, as called for in a book by Perry that came out last year.
Perry responded that he disagreed with the original decision more than 70 years ago on how to set up Social Security, but that the benefits coming to senior citizens today and people who will become eligible soon should be protected.
When Romney persisted on the constitutionality question, Perry said the nation needed to have a serious conversation on the issue, which prompted Romney to cut him off by saying "we're having that conversation right now, governor."
Perry then accused Romney of trying to scare senior citizens by focusing on the "Ponzi scheme" statement, and the two continued to trade jibes on the issue.
Other candidates then joined in, with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich earning applause from the crowd of conservative tea party supporters by saying the issue wasn't about who was scaring senior citizens when, he said, President Barack Obama was scaring the nation every day.
Later, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who has seen her support erode since Perry joined the race, called the cancer vaccination order signed by the Texas governor "flat-out wrong."
"We cannot forget that in the midst of this executive order there's a big drug country that made millions of dollars because of this," Bachmann said, adding that a former Perry aide was a lobbyist for the company and asking if the issue was about saving lives or money.
Perry responded that the company, Merck, made a $5,000 contribution and said to Bachmann: "If you're saying I can be bought for $5,000, I'm offended."
"I'm offended by what happened to all those girls, " Bachmann said of the required vaccination of girls as young as 12 against cervical cancer.
Perry also said that the executive order was a mistake and he should have worked with the legislature instead of issuing it. He also noted the order gave parents the right to opt their children out of the vaccination.
His answer drew a sharp response from former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, another competitor for tea party conservative support, who said there was "no government purpose served by having little girls inoculated" by force of law.
The debate at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa gave the other candidates on the stage a chance to change what many are portraying as a two-person race between Perry and Romney.
CNN and the Tea Party Express, a leading national tea party organization, teamed up to put on the event, with questions coming from the moderator, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, as well as from tea party activists, supporters in the audience and voters at locations in Arizona, Ohio and Virginia. Other participants included Gingrich, Bachmann, Santorum, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former Utah Gov. and former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman and former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain.
Perry, the new guy in the race and the current front-runner in the national polls, and Romney, the previous front-runner in the GOP battle, sparred over jobs and Social Security at a debate last week at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
They continued the battle Monday. When Blitzer noted Perry's success creating jobs in Texas, Romney cited what he called advantages to accomplishing such success in that state, including no income tax, lots of oil and a Republican-controlled state legislature.
"If you're dealt four aces, that doesn't necessarily make you a great poker player," Romney said in the best zinger of the early going.
If voters believe all of America is like Texas, then they should choose someone with success in Texas, Romney continued, adding that if voters believe the nation needs to be turned around, "that's what I do."
Perry responded to Romney: "You were doing pretty good until you got to talking poker."
In the California debate last week, Perry stood by earlier comments that Social Security is a "Ponzi scheme" and that it was a "monstrous lie" to tell young workers that the 74-year-old pension system would be there when they retire.
Romney fired back, saying that "under no circumstances would I ever say by any measure it's a failure. It is working for millions of Americans, and I'll keep it working for millions of Americans."
Since then, both candidates have swung at each other through e-mail and social media. In a radio interview, Romney went a step further.
"If we nominate someone who the Democrats can correctly characterize as being opposed to Social Security, we would be obliterated as a party," he said.
Perry's team fired back, noting that in Romney's policy book "No Apology," the former Massachusetts governor compared the management of Social Security to a felony. When that issue came up Monday, Romney said Perry was misquoting him from the book.
As for Romney's charge that Perry would possibly abolish the popular government program, Perry's team says that the Texas governor believes that Social Security must be protected for current beneficiaries and those nearing retirement age.
In a a USA Today op-ed released Monday by Perry, he declined to use the phrase "Ponzi scheme" but called for a "frank, honest national conversation about fixing Social Security to protect benefits for those at or near retirement while keeping faith with younger generations, who are being asked to pay."
Bachmann, who is vying for tea party support with Perry, also has tried to inject herself into the Social Security discussion.
Monday's debate is crucial to Bachmann, who has dropped in national polling since Perry launched his campaign on August 13, the very same day that she won a crucial straw poll in Ames, Iowa. She had strong debate performances at presidential debates in New Hampshire in June and Iowa in August, but she didn't shine to the same degree last week.
What makes this debate different is its connection to the tea party, a 2 1/2-year-old conservative movement that calls for lower taxes and less government spending and regulations. The movement was extremely influential in last year's GOP primaries in the midterm elections, and strong support from tea party activists helped the Republicans win back control of the House of Representatives.
"Because of these successes, it only makes sense that the tea party would engage in presidential politics," said Tea Party Express chair Amy Kremer. "We are not going to just accept what the Republican Party wants to give to us. The people across America are tired of party politics, so it will be the people of this movement that will determine the next Republican nominee."
Source: CNN