Rick Perry takes fire in Florida debate

Rick Perry came under attack from all sides in a debate Monday night as his Republican presidential rivals sought to raise doubts about his record as Texas governor and blunt the momentum that has made him the front-runner to challenge President Barack Obama next year.

Across a crackling two-hour debate, Perry gave little ground and frequently jabbed back, particularly at his chief rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

But the criticism of Perry kept coming - from Romney on Social Security, from Texas Rep. Ron Paul saying the governor had raised taxes, from Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann on his rewarding illegal immigrants by granting them in-state tuition rates at Texas universities, and from former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania assailing his executive order requiring the vaccination of schoolgirls against a cancer-causing sexually transmitted virus.

Perry bristled only once, when Bachmann seemed to suggest a connection between his executive order on the vaccinations and campaign contributions he received from a drug company. "I'm offended," he said, if she had questioned his integrity.

The eight rivals - who also included former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia; former Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah and businessman Herman Cain - shared a debate stage for the second time in less than a week, a pace that marked a quickening in the campaign to choose a challenger to Obama in 2012.

The encounter was sponsored by tea party groups - the conservative voters advocating limited government and lower taxes who propelled the Republicans to victory in the 2010 congressional elections, and by CNN.

This year, nearly all the Republican candidates have taken even more deeply conservative positions as they try to attract the primary election votes of the highly motivated tea party wing.

The current series of Republican debates is the first stage of the nominating process ahead of state-by-state party primary elections and caucus meetings that begin shortly after the New Year.

Obama is vulnerable next year because of the flagging U.S. economic recovery and continued high unemployment, still above 9 percent. Santorum drew loud applause when he said the current economy "would have to make a dramatic improvement just to be a disaster."

The debate unfolded in the city where Republicans will gather next summer to bestow the party nomination on a challenger to Obama.

Differing visions of the role of government in fixing America's troubled economy have already sharply delineated the Republican field from Obama, who is pushing yet another massive package of federal intervention. Republicans are pushing for less government involvement, saying the private sector knows best how to right the economy.

Perry shot to the top of the Republican field shortly after announcing his candidacy last month and quickly overtook Bachmann, the one-time favorite of the tea party movement.

While Perry's straight-talking style and Texas swagger have become a hit with the tea party and social conservatives, his controversial position on Social Security has left him vulnerable to criticism from others in the Republican field, particularly Romney.

Under attack from Romney in the opening moments of the debate, Perry softened his rhetoric if not his position on Social Security, declining to repeat earlier statements questioning the program's constitutionality, likening it to a criminal "Ponzi scheme," and calling it an absolute failure.

"A program that's been there 70 or 80 years, obviously we're not going to take that away," Perry said as Romney pressed him repeatedly to answer pointed questions.

The Texas governor counter-attacked quickly, accusing Romney of "trying to scare seniors" with his own comments on a program that tens of millions of Americans - including millions in the debate state of Florida alone - rely on for part or all of their retirement income.

Romney quoted others as saying the Texas governor's position on Social Security could spell defeat for the party as it tries to win the White House from Obama next year.

Then Perry countered, quoting Romney as having said in his own book that if people did with their financing what had been done with Social Security receipts it would be a criminal offense.

"You've got to quote me correctly," Romney responded. "What I said was taking money out of the Social Security trust fund is criminal and it's wrong."

Social Security was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" program adopted during the 1930's Great Depression. Under the system, workers and employers pay a percentage of wages into the federal system as a payroll tax that then funds modest pension payments upon retirement. Millions of Americans are dependent on the program, increasingly so as private sector employers have cut or stopped paying pensions as a reward for long years of service.

Perry contends the program is no longer viable because there are far more Americans receiving payments and fewer workers contributing as the population ages.

According to the most recent independent forecasts, unless Congress enacts changes, benefits will have to be cut beginning in 2037.

Florida's primary election next year could serve as a determining contest between Romney and Perry. They were widely expected to emerge about even from earlier nominating contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

Florida Republicans will have yet another chance to hear the candidates face off Sept. 22 in Orlando in advance of a three-day party gathering the ends with the Florida Straw Poll. The vote is largely a popularity contest that gauges support from the most conservative and motivated sector of the party.