Despite learning how much Americans dislike government shutdowns in 2013, Congress is once again playing a dangerous game based on political gamesmanship and partisan hard lines. This time, the stakes are comparably lower, but no less damaging — and infuriating — than they were two years ago.

The stakes this time around are the funding of the Department of Homeland Security. Unless the current bill makes it through Congress or a new bill is drafted and approved, the Department of Homeland Security will be forced to halt all nonessential programs, including keeping nonessential employees away from work. Essential employees — like the National Guard — will be forced to work without pay during the shutdown, with no promise of reimbursement when this mess is eventually sorted out.

The current bill has overwhelming Republican support, but that may have something to do with the fact that attached to the bill is a measure that would defund President Obama’s recent immigration reform is attached to the bill is. For that reason, the majority of Democrats want nothing to do with it.

Perhaps the most incomprehensibly hypocritical aspect of this bill is the fact that a Homeland Security shutdown would stop pay for border patrol agencies. So apparently if you don’t want immigration to be reformed, the answer is to stop paying the people who monitor illegal immigration.

Essentially, Republicans are saying “I bet you’ll bend first,” and Democrats have responded by saying “Come find out.”

All this leaves American citizens somewhere in the middle, regardless of political affiliation. The 2013 government shutdown was initiated in a similar fashion after a Republican proposition to defund Obamacare got stuck in the legislature. In response, Republican approval ratings took a hit while House, Senate, and presidential approval ratings went up. After gaining the majority in 2014, do Republicans really want to damage their victory by immediately making another catastrophically unpopular political decision?

All partisan sentiment aside, the majority of Americans — Congress members included — should be able to agree that this is simply not the time for a political game of chicken. With overseas enemies calling for attacks against American malls, this seems an inopportune time to end funding for programs that monitor domestic terror threats. Also, citizens in the northeastern United States experiencing some of the worst snow storms in recent history would no longer receive aid from government agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

This is not an example of a government “of the people, for the people and by the people” because the “people” are by and large going to lose as a result of this political idiocy, since no one wins in these political staring contests.

This is not an argument that Obama’s immigration reform is the correct decision for the United States, but it is an argument against selfish political scheming that benefits very few people and hurts every single American.

Reports have come forward that Republicans are forming a “clean” Homeland Security funding bill and it seems to be the correct decision. Republicans can have this fight if they want it but this not the stage.