Our democratic form of government calls for an open, transparent process. Lawmakers earmarking federal money for local projects, under cover of secrecy would seem to go against that principle. The lack of transparency makes it too easy for members of Congress to use earmarks to do special favors for big campaign contributors or for personal gain.

House Democratic leaders have promised to open up the appropriations process by disclosing the name of the lawmaker who requested the funding for a specific project. Democrats also said they will cut the use of earmarks in half. So far, the House has fared better than the Senate. According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, the Senate's earmarks outnumber the House's earmarks 5 to one in the Interior and Environment spending bill.

Tom Schatz of the Citizens for Government Waste says voters need to send a message to Congress that they want representatives who are good stewards of taxpayers’ money and focused only on bringing home the bacon. But, this relates back to that old truism, "all politics is local."

Personally, I don’t like that “Congress” wastes money on pork barrel projects, but feel different when my local congressman uses the earmark process to get new transportation funding.

How do you feel about these projects? Is increased disclosure enough? Or should there be a moratorium on earmarks?