Candidates Cling to the Third Rail Maybe they think it will get them attention. Why else would presidential candidates as diverse as John Edwards and Fred Thompson raise the issue of Social Security, a program that almost no one among budget policy experts seriously believes is in imminent trouble? In "Edwards, Thompson Say U.S. Must Ward Off Crisis in Social Security Funding," Bloomberg.com reports the latest alarm sounded on the issue: On CNN's Late Edition, John Edwards declared, "Social Security is an enormous issue facing this country" and recommended some tax hikes "in order to keep Social Security solvent in the future." Thompson said on ABC's This Week yesterday that "the country can't afford to 'let the bottom fall out' from the program in the next three decades." The Social Security Trustees' most recent report indicates that program is guaranteed to remain solvent for the next 34 years even if no change is made to it. For a thorough and sober-minded critique of the "general Washington political discussion of Social Security," see: A Taxing Matter.