Earmarks- issue or not?

To say that earmarks are not an issue for our country is definately false, to what degree of an issue they pose to our debt verses their benefits is the the real question at hand.  In no doubt have great things been acomplished on the local level via earmarks, but a great national debt has also been fueled by this type of spending. Earmarks are one of the many contributing factors to our national debt, but a large one none the less.  So do we all have to agree and go along with McCain's no earmark what-so-ever policy he promised if he were to have beeen elected?  i think we need to get rid of earmarks and devise a system for a more clean cut representation of these proposed expenses, instead of hiding them inside bigger proposals.  We cant go on voting for proposal A while ignoring but still paying for proposals B, C, D, E, and F; this system is spending us into the ground and we need to be front up about what we are spending money on.