This is how dictators rise to power.
And you believed all that? I was taught that Congress had to actually vote on pieces of legislation. (Remember the cartoon of the Bill wending it's way through both Houses?) Now I learn that they can just Deem it Passed. Bet you believed they had to actually vote too.
Boy, were we snookered!
Perhaps checks and balances in government haven't been discarded but that you weren't taught how they work.