Earmarks have gotten a bad rap. Actually, they keep control of expenditures in Congress, where the Constitution places it. Getting rid of earmarks cedes control to the executive.
Respectfully disagree. While in theory, earmarks might accomplish carefully targeted spending, they became little more than a mainstay of pork barrel politics in practice.
Candidly, the benefit of keeping spending controls in Congress may currently be outweighed by the advantage of having Trump exercise the kind of cost control he has so successfully employed in business. Congress is incapable.