I wish Democrats spent as much effort cutting spending and reducing regulations as they do figuring out how to tax more.

Actually I think the article is incorrect. The backdoor Roth is where the investment is made into a traditional IRA account with dollars that have had the taxes paid (much like a Roth IRA). Then the IRA is converted to a Roth IRA. Since the taxes have already been paid there is no tax on the recharacterization as a Roth.

It would be really stupid policy to eliminate the actual conversion of tax-deferred dollars from a traditional IRA to a Roth. That transaction means immediate tax dollars to the government. Hardly a tax scam. With deficits being what they are, it would seem that no policy that reduces the deficit makes any sense at all.

A backdoor Roth is where the investment is made pre-tax into a traditional IRA and funds from the Traditional IRA are converted to the Roth and taxed at that point. I have many high income clients who do just that. In 32 years in business I've seen 2 individuals who actually had after tax contributions that rolled into a Roth and hundreds who contributed from pre-tax retirement accounts and converted as a "back-door" way of contributing to a Roth IRA.