With the U.S. “Big Three” of General Motors Corp. (GM), Ford Motor Co. (F), and Chrysler Corp. seeking as much as $34 billion in bailout money, there’s a lot at stake for the American auto industry. There would also be quite a bit at stake for Congress, given the personal stakes that elected officials own in the automakers, FoxBusiness.com reports.

I can’t think of a sector more vulnerable to soaring oil prices than the airlines. Every dollar increase in the price of a barrel of jet fuel adds more than $1.3 million to the daily operating expenses of the U.S. airlines industry.