I have spent more than a decade testifying about fiduciary duty in federal and state courtrooms. The standard is not complicated. If you hold someone else’s money, you owe that person undivided loyalty, prudent judgment, and, at a minimum, your presence when the subject is how their money got stolen. Miss that standard as an investment manager, and you get sued. Miss it as a United States senator, evidently, nobody docks your pay.

That is the lesson from last Wednesday’s Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, titled “Exposing Fraud in America.” Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) opened by noting that the debt clock in his office stood at nearly $40 trillion that morning. A bank confirms an account exists before it wires money, he said. A credit card company flags suspicious charges in seconds. An insurance company verifies a patient exists before paying a claim. Washington pays first and asks questions later, if it asks them at all.