The idea of eliminating pork to cut spending is a fairy tale offered up by charlatans like McCain. It's not going to reduce spending significantly and pork is an inherent part of government. We can certainly make efforts to reduce it but we cannot eliminate it. Most of the arguments on pork and earmarks are just about who gets to hand it out, the legislative or executive branches.
Infrastructure is a small part of the federal budget and it should be even smaller. Local and state governments are better suited to pay for it and since the benefits derived are nearly all local they are more likely to focus on it being cost effective. As long as California, New York, etc. are paying for the bridge in Alaska, the locals have little incentive to care about cost. However, if they are paying for it themselves they are going to care about it.
