It's not really about getting the right people, it is about public attitudes changing on these issues. We can never "get the right people" so long as the public overwhelmingly supports these programs and don't want them tampered with. Tea Party candidates running to end the Medicare prescription drug program would just lose their elections - so they'd never get a chance to enact such changes.
People are making a mistake thinking that it's only a matter of getting courageous conservatives and Tea Party folks in office. The problem is public attitudes about these entitlements. That has to change before the environment will ever shift enough to allow the kind of Tea Party types that you mention to ever get elected. As of now, even existing Tea Party conservatives are not going to mess with the Medicare prescription drug program.
At least, I pray there is.
Time will tell...but 2012 is going to be a bell weather.