The Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire reports that Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) wants to prevent lobbyists from paying people to stand in line for them while waiting to talk to legislators.

“I find it troubling that everyone in this room is getting paid by someone,” she said in the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing room; some line-standers had been parked outside the doors since 3 a.m., waiting for seats at a hearing on consumer issues in the wireless industry.

One respondent on this article has pondered why we’re paying Senator McCaskill, too.

McCaskill thinks it’s buying access: this is incorrect. It’s buying time. The congressman doesn’t benefit from this purchase. People are willing to stand in line and convert their time to cash. If you pay someone to stand in line and wait for tickets at the movie theater, the tickets themselves don’t change in price.

The problem here is that we entrust so much power in our federal legislature — power that is exercised — that huge demand is created for our legislators’ time. I imagine the line at Congressman Ron Paul’s door is quite short.