It’s actually come to this. Wow… just wow.

In the House, Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) is proposing legislation that would require presidential candidates to release 10 years worth of tax returns and disclose any overseas investments.

And in the Senate, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich) are proposing beefing up financial disclosure forms for all candidates for federal office to require disclosure of overseas investments, including Swiss bank accounts.

The House bill would also require new disclosure of off-shore investments but specifically targeted the tax return issue. Rep. Sander Levin said Romney should “set the example” for future candidates and release his returns. But then he said the law must be changed so release of tax information is not at the discretion of candidates.

“I don’t think there’s any question now in terms of the responsibility of the candidate,” he said. “I think the law ought to now reflect that responsibility.”

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you read that correctly. Gone are the days when the United States Congress focused their business on Constitutional, nationally-relevant issues, like — oh, I don’t know — passing a budget. It appears that, while those gosh darn obstructionist Republicans with all of their useless show votes and filibusters are the malicious harbingers of utter partisanship, the Democrats are now dedicating their legislative efforts to supporting the Obama campaign’s petty fits of populist whimsy. Last week, on the heels of all of these “Bain Capital offshored jobs, the horror!” attacks, the Democrats latched on to the Olympic-uniform controversy and proposed the unbelievably protectionist-pandering “The Team USA Made in America Act of 2012.” (Shakin’ my head, friends… shakin’ my head.) Now, they’re aiming to use Congress’s powers to force Mitt Romney to comply with Team Obama’s free enterprise-demonizing, muckraking, distraction-oriented tantrums?

On the Senate floor Wednesday morning, Majority Leader Harry Reid said that both parties in Congress do what they can to protect and support their respective nominees.

“I understand there’s a presidential election going on,” Reid said this morning on the Senate floor. “I clearly understand that. We do what we can to protect the president of the United States. And I know there are efforts to protect their nominee.”

Yes, Sen. Reid, but there’s a big, fat difference between supporting your favored candidate with substantive policy proposals that second their larger visions for running the country, and with a piddling legislative agenda seeking to shore up the president’s bullying in a bold-faced attempt to get everybody to ignore the country’s biggest problems.

There is no earthly number of facepalms that could mitigate my exasperation.