As I write this, the government is hours away from shutting down. Countless federal employees whose jobs are to serve the public will be furloughed. Services will be disrupted. To take one example, the Environmental Protection Agency is planning to furlough nearly 90% of its workforce. Is the air too clean? The water and the beaches too safe? Not in Southern California, where I live. The very idea that the EPA might effectively shut down is both dangerous and terrifying.

But who cares? Not the politicians, starting with the president, who is more interested in playing the blame game and still seems to operate on the principle that he was elected to be king, not to work with the other party and Congress to lead this country. Leadership has to come from the top. Leadership means finding the right compromise.

That's how we all have to live. Too many bills and too little money. Who doesn't know these problems? How many households in America have to struggle to make ends meet? You do what you have to do. You prioritize. You handle it like an adult. You don't get to throw a temper tantrum and announce that you are "shutting down."

Trump prefers the ugly approach. Refuse to even meet with Democratic leaders until the eleventh hour. Ridicule those who you need to be reasonable with. Hours after meeting for the first time with Democratic leaders, Trump posted a racist AI video attacking the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. The deepfake video superimposed a cartoon mustache and sombrero over Jeffries, who is Black. Jeffries is pictured standing silently while Mariachi music plays and a distorted version of the voice of Schumer delivers expletive-laden comments admitting that "Nobody likes Democrats anymore."

"Bigotry will get you nowhere," Jeffries responded in his own post. Sadly, that remains to be seen.

The Cabinet departments and agencies have followed suit, spending these precious days not figuring out how to protect the public but busily blaming Democrats, throwing around insults like spoiled children. In releases to the press, the Environmental Protection Agency blamed "Congressional Democrats," while the Small Business Administration called it a "Democrat-imposed" shutdown. Descending into Trump-like name calling, the Department of Housing and Urban Development blamed the "Radical Left," while Veterans Affairs claimed the shutdown is the fault of "Radical liberals."

Radical liberals? Is that what you call people who support Medicaid and Obamacare subsidies? I call them average Americans, who support both, which is why the Trump administration keeps lying and saying Democrats are shutting down the government because they want to pay for health benefits for illegal immigrants. Just not so. Democrats are fighting to protect us, Americans, from losing health care benefits that Republicans are trying to take away so they can fund their priorities, like tax cuts for the wealthy and the fancy new White House ballroom.

In other news this week, highlighting the insanity of this shutdown, the White House is moving separately to defund a critical agency that oversees the Trump administration. The decision to defund the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency would shut down the office that supports the government's 72 inspectors general, and the public website where they post their reports, which include decades of recommendations on how the government can save money. At least two leading Senate Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, have written to the White House asking that the funds be released.

"Absent immediate action," they wrote, the watchdog office will "furlough staff and terminate important functions that help prevent and detect waste, fraud and abuse throughout the government." As if the king cares.

To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Harold Mendoza at Unsplash