Ramesh Ponnuru sets out in a National Review Online column a series of questions Republican presidential candidates should answer as the first election votes approach.

Some of the questions conservatives should ask are relatively open-ended. They should demand that their candidates explain how they would replace Obamacare, for example, though the candidates could reasonably provide different answers. There are a lot of moving parts to health policy. (Most of the candidates, to their discredit, have not yet given a detailed answer about Obamacare’s replacement.) A candidate ought to tell us how he intends to reform the tax code and entitlements, too. Consider that the essay-test portion of the primaries.

But there are also some yes-or-no questions conservatives should ask, some simple and specific commitments they ought to press the candidates to make.

Would you impose the “Reagan rule” on Title X? Federal law prohibits family-planning funding from paying for abortion. The Reagan administration, in its last year, interpreted that law to mean that funds should not go to organizations that perform abortions. The Supreme Court later ruled that the administration was within its legal rights to follow that interpretation. Bill Clinton lifted the rule after he took office, and it has never been reinstated. …

… Would you sign the First Amendment Defense Act if it were presented to you? Senator Mike Lee has introduced a bill to stop the federal government from taking any action against someone for acting on the belief that marriage is the union of a man and a woman (or that sexual activity is properly reserved to such a marriage). The Republican candidates all say they oppose same-sex marriage and support religious liberty; declaring their support for this legislation is a way to show they mean it — and to block the federal government from treating opposition to same-sex marriage as equivalent to segregationism.

Would you sign the Regulatory Accountability Act if given the chance? As a result of executive orders that date to the Reagan administration, executive agencies have to conduct cost-benefit analyses before issuing regulations. Conservatives in Congress want to put that requirement in law, extend it to the independent agencies those orders do not cover, and subject regulations to more judicial review. If the candidates aren’t willing to make this pledge, it would be worth knowing it and hearing what possible reason they could give.