So what is an earmark?  And who should have the power to spend the money?

But what precisely is an earmark?

That question has been at the heart of passionate negotiations across the capital as lawmakers, federal agencies and lobbyists argue over what constitutes waste and what is legitimate spending.
...
Citizens Against Government Waste, which publishes an annual "Congressional Pig Book" cataloguing pork-barrel spending, considers an earmark to be "a project inserted by a member into legislation without debate or hearings, usually to serve someone or some special interest," said Thomas Schatz, president of the group.
...
"It cedes more power to the executive branch," said Rep. James T. Walsh (N.Y.), the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and related agencies. "The Congress has the power of the purse. . . . For us to give that up is a mistake."
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Walsh unsuccessfully argued that $700,000 for gang-prevention programs in Syracuse and $10 million for nuclear fusion work at the University of Rochester are vital to his district and deserve a place in this year's budget. Those items had been vetted by the Appropriations Committee last year and approved by the House but now have been caught up in the Democrats' earmarks moratorium, he said: "That has always been the problem, trying to define what an earmark is. Some of it is essential spending."

Or... you could not spend that money at all, lower taxes, and if a state needed to spend that money on an important project, then the state could add it to their budget.  So really, it wouldn't have to cede any power to the executive branch at all.  However, if done properly (and what are the chance of that?), it could give power back to the states, which is exactly where it belongs.  After all, why should my tax money get spent on a gang prevention program in Syracuse?  Let them spend the money if it's important to them.

That's what people are really afraid of... is giving up federal power and returning it back to the states which have been losing it for decades.  Via Jenna.