“In my judgment, it would be foolish to waste massive sums of taxpayer funds testing an idea that has been hastily crafted and may actually cause the government to revert to an inadequate strategy of ad hoc bailouts.”

Another Democrat railing against the economic bailout plan put together by President Bush, along with Fed boss Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson?

Uh, not exactly. Those are the words of Sen. Richard Shelby. He’s a Republican from Alabama. He also happens to be the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

Clearly there are going to be a few heated arguments this week as Congress takes up probably the most important piece of economic legislation in our lifetime.

This isn’t a case of Nero fiddling while Rome burns. Make no mistake, our economy is in flames. Some are referring to it as a meltdown.

President Bush and his economic czars have urged Congress to pass the bailout plan ASAP.

Doesn’t look like that is going to happen. For one thing, Democrats and others want more assurances that homeowners face foreclosures will get some help from the measure, and they want to make sure a lot of financial firm barons whose decisions put us in this pickle don’t walk away with a sweet payout.

Stay tuned. All that’s at stake is our future.