Slice the pork; Campaign against wasteful earmarking is welcome.

• Position: EDITORIAL - Editorial

COLUMN: In our opinion

President Bush's vow during his State of the Union speech to fight out-of-control congressional "earmarking" provoked little reaction from pundits of polls this week. Yet, if the president reins in Congress' pork-barrel tendencies, even incrementally, he will have done the nation a valuable service.

Earmarks are the special spending measures for pet projects that often are added to major appropriations bills. Earmarks can play a positive role in the budget process because they tend to create a more level playing field between the majority and minority parties, between big states and small. However, they are prone to abuse because they circumvent the usual committee scrutiny and floor debate. Worse, although the sponsor sometimes can be identified, many earmarks appear mysteriously and anonymously as committees work on spending bills before and after the House and Senate votes.

Despite bipartisan vows last year to bring the practice under control, members of both parties have proved unable or unwilling to resist the temptation. Just last December, for example, members of Congress bundled all of the spending bills they had been dawdling over for months into a massive $550 billion package. The 1,400-page mega-bill passed in great haste - with an...