There’s not much room in an airline seat – particularly when government is trying to wriggle in there with you, too. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, tried to do just that, with an amendment to an FAA bill that would have stopped airlines from reducing the size of seats.

Of course airplane seats are small. But the federal government simply has no business dictating every last detail – including seat size – to private sector companies.

“The amendment, which was rejected 42-54, would have directed the agency to develop minimum seat-size standards and would also have required companies to post their seat sizes online,” The Hill reported. “The New York Democrat, who says he removes the magazines from the seat pocket to clear a little extra space for his legs when he flies, argued his amendment would have created a market incentive for airlines to give their passengers more room. Schumer maintains the problem of shrinking seats has grown as airline competition has declined, saying fliers have lost half a foot of space.”

That may be true, but it’s a reality of the free market. Airlines have had a rough time of it in recent years, and most have struggled to remain profitable. They need to fly more people if they want to keep flying at all.

There’s another reality of the free market – where there’s a need or a niche, a smart company will step in to fill it. In time, we’ll see airlines advertising their more spacious seats.

Let’s leave it to the markets – and to the nature of spirited competition.

As the AP reported, “Dave Berg, an attorney with Airlines for America, a trade group for major airlines, said he objected to the notion that the government should establish a minimum amount of space per passenger. Difference between seat sizes ‘goes to the heart and soul’ of airline competition, and it would be inappropriate for the government to interfere in such competition by a deregulated industry, he said.

Schumer, for his part, chastised his Senate colleagues for voting down his amendment.

“(He) blasted his Republican colleagues for not supporting his provision, but for favoring language in the underlying FAA bill that requires airline companies to refund passengers for lost bags,” The Hill explained.

But Schumer is wrong on that point.

It’s completely appropriate for the FAA to regulate lost-baggage rules. Free markets don’t exist without some government; anarcho-capitalism is a college dorm myth. Markets need government to provide the framework of order and to enforce contracts. So when one party in a transaction is wronged, the other party in that transaction must make him or her whole. And government’s proper role is to see that it’s done.

Therefore, a passenger whose luggage is lost should be compensated – and there’s no logical inconsistency in free market Republicans siding with the passengers and setting rules for how airlines must make them whole.

But seat size is another matter. There’s not enough room in one for you, market forces and the government.