If you read our Constitution, the ONLY Checks and Balances on CONGRESS is ELECTIONS, Everybody else operates according to what CONGRESS DICTATES, see Article 3.
I seem to remember that our Constitution gives our President the right to “veto” all the “powers” that you said Congress has. The “veto” is the President’s “check” on Congress.
The Constitution also provides a “veto-override” power for the Congress. That is Congress’s “check” on the President.
This means that, to actually exercise the powers, which you claim the Congress has, Congress would need to have veto-proof 2/3rds majorities in both the House and the Senate. And (need I add) NO RINOs to support the “veto”.
Now, when, in Obama’s nearly eight disastrous years in office, did those Anti-Obama super-majorities occur?
Never?
NEVER!
I like your spirit, and I agree that the “establishment” could have played the cards they held better, but I think your analysis here is over-simplified.