Diet of transparency curbs politician's appetites for pork

House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, has announced a laudable priority for the new Congress: Put a name on every federal earmark.

Pelosi has shown she's willing to walk the talk. She was one of the first lawmakers to offer to return earmarked funds in her district to aid in relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina last year.

While the Republican-controlled Congress recently took some steps toward bringing more openness to the federal spending process, even some GOP leaders acknowledge that the reforms did not go far enough. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said "the GOP's failure to bring accountability to the budget process likely fueled the party's losses in the November election."

Earlier this year, the GOP-run Congress approved creating a federal database that allows anyone to simply dig through the thousands of earmarks to find out where and for what purpose taxpayers' dollars are being spent. But Republicans stopped short of naming names.

Kentucky's lawmakers should do in Frankfort what Pelosi has made a priority in Washington put a name on every slice of pork.

The manner in which lawmakers passed Kentucky's most recent budget is a stark reminder that a lack of transparency seems to increase politicians appetites for spending. House and Senate leaders hammered out the final budget in almost total secrecy, emerging in mid-April to force lawmakers to vote for the whole package.

Legislators were given mere hours to read the massive document before casting their votes. There was no time to question spending decisions.

By making every spending program attributable to the individual lawmaker responsible, appropriate spending priorities may come to dominate the budget process once again.

Sources:

Democrats: Identify pork sponsors by Peter Eisler and Kathy Kiely, USA Today, Nov. 13, 2006.

Reducing Federal Corruption by Chris Edwards, Cato Institute, May 2006.