IPAB is just bad policy. And, politically, getting rid of it is a no-brainer. The GOP is all but unanimously against the board. Republicans have formed caucuses in the House and Senate exclusively comprised of physicians with the single purpose of getting rid of IPAB.

There’s growing opposition among Democrats, as well. Even last year, in the heat of the health care debate, more than 70 congressional Democrats signed a letter to then- Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging her to remove the IPAB provision from the legislation.

The political will is there. The Democrats should cash in on it.

Given that IPAB was part of his health care bill, the president can’t come out and explicitly endorse its repeal. But he can send subtle signals to the congressional leadership that he won’t veto a bill repealing it.

The president would not be sacrificing any of his legislation’s key components. It still expands the ranks of the insured and installs price-reduction mechanisms. The White House would not be sacrificing anything of consequence by letting IPAB die.

Getting rid of IPAB would bolster Democrats’ reputation as champions of Medicare – that they’re a party that cares about fiscal reform, but not at the expense of our nation’s most vulnerable.

Douglas Schoen is a political strategist and author of Mad as Hell: How the Tea Party Movement is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System, published by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins.