I guess it was predictable: Hillary Clinton has joined John McCain in pushing for a gas-tax holiday. She insists that it would help poor and working-class Americans save money. Some analysts disagree, saying that at best, the savings wouldn't be much - and that there's no guarantee that retailers won't keep prices at the same level and hang on to the money themselves.

A larger issue, of course, is that rising gas prices may at last force Americans to conserve. Clinton's and McCain's proposals - and the proposals of the Republicans in the New York State Legislature - encourage more consumption. And they'll worsen the financial problems facing the nation and the state.

Clinton is apparently clueless about the consumption problem, though. When she held a press conference yesterday to announce her tax-holiday proposal, she arrived in a pick-up truck - followed, according to last night's Lehrer NewsHour, by a fleet of 10 SUV's.