system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Can the legislature effectively dissolve the judiciary by refusing to confirm justices?

If Congress can simply refuse to seat justices, doesn't that defeat the point of checks and balances?
gpt
The key word there is effectively.  Congress could also choose not to pass any laws ever to thwart the executive branch.

In both cases, Congress pays a high political price for not doing its job.  McConnell is being slaughtered in the media, and ultimately his choice to do nothing could cost his party seats in the Senate and an even more liberal judge on the bench.

What if there wasn't a political cost?  Then what they were doing would reflect the will of people against a president they didn't trust.  Sounds exactly like checks and balances to me.