Congress is set to take a recess from November 21 to December 8--a two-week escape from grim reality. Meanwhile, the stock market goes down another 200-400 points each day, more layoffs are announced, and businesses seem to be crumbling everywhere. While Americans may well wonder if their Thanksgiving turkey will be the last good, big meal they eat until June 2009, our elected representatives will flee to their home districts. U.S. workers, on the other hand, are not getting two weeks off, and indeed, most are scrambling to finish up all their year-end projects to meet 2008 budgets and deadlines for their employers. If I were president, I would order Congress to stay in session until it passes some kind of temporary relief, bridge loan--albeit with many strings attached--for the auto industry. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns! Here's an idea for financing the "bailout": why not use the nearly $18 billion that the MMS just returned to the U.S. Treasury from oil and gas royalties and lease bonuses in fiscal 2008? After all, if there is no robust U.S. auto industry in two years, how much oil will we need by then? --Leslie Haines, Editor-in-chief, Oil and Gas Investor