This week, Congress returns for a lame-duck session, and at the top of the agenda is a proposal to aid America’s ailing auto industry. During Meet the Press’ roundtable yesterday, much of the discussion centered on the auto bailout, and the effect it would have on the economy at-large.

PRI and PBS’ Tavis Smiley, though, lamented that bailout-mania has removed from the political picture “the working poor” and any discussion of poverty. “We’ve been talking about bailing out industry, talking about bailing out Wall Street. Every now and then, some conversation about Main Street. But no conversation about the side street, and that’s where too many Americans live these days,” he said. Watch it:

It’s easy to forget during the battle of the bailouts, but nearly 40 million Americans live in poverty. And there are several steps the new administration can take to alleviate poverty, even in light of the financial crisis. As the Center for American Progress Action Fund laid out in Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President:

The White House’s domestic policy agenda should make it a priority to address the challenges faced by nearly 40 million Americans living in poverty. Critical policies to achieve these ends include: raising and indexing the minimum wage; improving government support programs such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, and food stamps; removing the barriers to union organizing to allow parents to earn more; and making health care available to all.

A Center for American Progress analysis has found that a $90 billion yearly investment could cut poverty in half, and that the money could be raised “by bringing better balance to the federal tax system and recouping part of what has been lost by the excessive tax cuts of recent years.”

It won’t be on the agenda this week, but while Congress is bailing out (or not bailing out) America’s industries, it needs to turn its attention to the working poor, who could sure use a bailout as well.

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