Less pork for California from GOP-led House

As Republicans prepare to become the majority in the House of Representatives, one California GOP leader is sending the message that less is more.

In his State of the State address earlier this year, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger complained that California gets less than 80 cents of every dollar in taxes it sends to Washington. Jean Ross of the California Budget Project figures the number is closer to a buck and a half.

But Congressman David Dreier says California shouldn’t count on buckets of D.C. dollars from the new Congress. Dreier says as the GOP focuses "on cutting spending, we’re not going to be bringing huge largess into California, which has so often been the gauge of a delegation’s success."

He says the old mantra, 'how many dollars can you bring home?' is "history."

"That’s not going to be the gauge of our success," says Dreier. "The gauge of our success is going to be 'are we going to be able to put into place good public policy to get the economy growing, to get people working,' and I think that’s the best thing we can do for California."

The Republican from San Dimas maintains that reducing the size of government and keeping taxes low will help the private sector create new jobs.