GOP contentiousness on Medicare, health law to emerge in Monday debate

McClatchy/Miami Herald: GOP Candidates' Debate Monday Will Have A Tea Party Flavor
The tea party movement roars into the Republican presidential spotlight Monday night, as grassroots conservative-coalition members are scheduled to question GOP candidates at a Tampa, Florida debate. ... in his economic blueprint, released last week, Romney lauded the movement, saying, "The rise of the tea party is a classic instance of the self-correcting forces of American democracy in action." He still has a fight ahead. Tea party activists are particularly adamant that the 2010 federal health care law be repealed, and the Massachusetts near-universal health care plan that Romney signed into law is considered its model (Lightman, 9/11).

CNN: Perry-Romney Fight Over Social Security Could Flare Again Monday 
At a campaign stop, Romney said "Republicans, like myself, are not gonna cut Social Security or Medicare for people who are retired or near retirement. And for the people who say we are, they are demagoguing an issue very much that harms America." ... Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, made clear that the back drop for the debate, a state with a heavy senior population reliant on Social Security and Medicare, would figure prominently into the Democrat prebuttal plans and to their response to the debate itself (Steinhauser, 9/9).

The New York Times: Muted In Last Debate, Bachmann Looks To Rejoin Conversation
The format and to some degree the focus of Monday's debate, which is co-sponsored by CNN and the Tea Party Express, could provide an opening for Mrs. Bachmann. ... Susan MacManus, a political scientist at the University of South Florida in Tampa, site of the Republican presidential convention next year, anticipated that Tea Party members would have questions about jobs, the size of government and whether responsibilities that the federal government has taken on, such as in education and health care, are permitted by the Constitution, issues that fit into Ms. Bachmann's comfort zone. (Gabriel and Shear, 9/11).

Related, from KHN on last week's debate: GOP Debate Reveals Differences On Health Care (Video And Transcript)
The Washington Post: What The Tea Party Is -; And Isn't 
The tea party was described as the new kid on the block of American politics, when in fact it was the extension of forces long at work in the political system. ... In other words, the Republican base was primed to dislike Obama as president. In fact, it already did before he was ever sworn in. ... They were also predisposed to oppose his agenda, whether it was his big stimulus package or his health-care proposal. Those measures helped galvanize the group that became known as tea party activists or supporters (Balz, 9/10).