The best way to fight wasteful earmarks in federal spending may be to tell the world about them — even though forces are already at work to keep them secret.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., are promoting a measure that would create a convenient database of information that would list government contracts and grants. The idea would be to give the public all the details on where the money goes, illuminating funded projects that often go under the radar now.

There are ways currently to go through federal documents to find details on contracts and grants. But they often take considerable time and effort, and that's why some activists devote a great deal of time unearthing those details and presenting news about pork to the public. But the effort in Congress would make that information more readily accessible.

It doesn't take much to convince the public that such openness is needed. But that hasn't stopped special interests from stunting the endeavor. The House passed a database project in June, but it omitted the listings of government contracts from the legislation. The roughly $300 billion in grants made it through and would be easily available through the bill. But that's not good enough. The contracts should be included. When Coburn protested that contracts should not be left out of the database, Rep. Thomas Davis, R-Va., said Coburn was "headline grabbing." Whether Coburn is looking for publicity is open for debate, but the bottom line is that he's right. Contracts can be a breeding ground for corruption.

Congress needs to open up and shed light on its business in many ways. With an accessible database of grants and contracts, the public may see spending it despises, and it may see spending that it approves of, down to the last penny. The only reason to oppose compiling the information for public use is if government has something to hide.