High taxes and burdensome regulations have stifled small business in the United States, a… High taxes and burdensome regulations have stifled small business in the United States, a Pennsylvania candidate for the U.S. Senate told a group of about 25 Pitt College Republicans Tuesday night.

Steve Welch, a Republican endorsed by the Pitt College Republicans for his party’s nomination to run against incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, talked to students at David Lawrence Hall about his background in business, his strict adherence to fiscal conservatism and the failure of education in the country.

Welch faces five other Republican candidates — David Christian, a public servant, pharmacist John Kensinger, former state Rep. Sam Rohrer, Cumberland County lawyer Marc Scaringi and buisnessman Tom Smith.

Welch said the regulations placed on businesses make it a “daunting task” for businesses to begin in the country and place large corporations at an advantage.

“We’ve seen a massive expansion of government that hurts the people it’s meant to protect,” Welch said in regard to small businesses.

Nationally, Welch said the Republican party must take a more realistic approach based on the economic realities of the country and stop focusing on social issues.

But Welch did quickly touch on abortion during his speech.

“I’m proudly pro-life,” he said. “There’s a lot of things in my life that reinforce that view.”

Continuing on the economic theme, Welch said Obama’s health care plan eliminates the opportunity for competition between health care companies for lower prices. He said he believes the lack of competition drives prices up.

Welch said once again that Republicans ignore the health care argument and instead focus on issues like defunding contraception.

“It really demonstrates that Obamacare is a top-down approach to the health care system where the government has too much control,” Welch said.

Welch also said environmental regulations continue to drive up “input costs” for energy companies, forcing U.S. reliance on foreign countries. He added that while the companies might have an environmental impact, the market will eventually solve such problems.

Calling himself a strong supporter of education, Welch said centralization of education in the country has reduced its quality across the board. He said the creativity of individual states is reflected in its students and that the ingenuity of Americans sets them apart from other nations.

“If you give me any problem in the world, I can tell you it’s because of education,” Welch said. “If anything good happens in the world, I’ll tell you it’s because of education.”

In order to demonstrate what he meant by stating that the the market resolves environmental impacts, Welch used the example of the situation in which the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire in 1969. Welch said companies didn’t stop producing plastic; they simply made the process more environmentally friendly.

“There will be an impact, but as long as we have strong economic growth in society, we’ll solve it,” Welch said.

Welch said his dedication to deregulation comes from his background in business. He said that he opened his first engineering firm, Mitos, at the age of 23 and soon thereafter opened a capital firm called “DreamIt Ventures.”

John Sutter, Welch’s Press Secretary, said in an email that Welch appreciated the endorsement of the Pitt College Republicans and that their support was crucial for the candidate.

“Since Steve has earned the endorsement of the Pitt College Republicans, he is pleased to speak at their meeting and introduce himself to their members and any other interested students,” Sutter said. “Their support is critical in helping to get college-age students to the polls and support Steve.”

Sutter also said Welch’s background in business “strongly resonates with voters across the Commonwealth.”

Casey Rankin, president of the Pitt College Republicans, said Welch’s dedication to economic conservatism earned him the endorsement of the College Republicans.

“We feel he is the best candidate by far to beat Bob Casey,” Rankin said.

Rankin said the College Republicans plan to make phone calls, knock on doors and spread Welch’s message to other Pitt students and the community.

Editor’s note: a previous version of this story misquoted Steve Welch. The Pitt News regrets the error.