US President Barack Obama has only two years left in office but he is not ready to slow down. Instead, he plans to charge into two of the most sensitive issues in US politics: immigration and climate change.
Now faced with implacable Republican opponents in both houses of Congress, Obama will force the pace of reform using the executive power of the White House, risking a constitutional showdown.
Just back from an Asian tour during which he announced a deal with China to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Obama now plans to issue a decree protecting millions of immigrants from deportation.
On both topics he is moving faster than America’s Republican-led Congress would stomach, and his apparent determination to test the limits of his authority has infuriated his opponents.
Obama believes his promises to Beijing - a reduction in US carbon emissions by 26 to 28% from their 2005 levels by 2025 - can be met without legislation.
On immigration, having seen many reform efforts stall on Capitol Hill, Obama thinks the time has come to act alone.
Without a coalition in Congress, Obama will not be able to reach a broad reform defining a path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented living and working in the US.
But, some argue, an executive order could protect certain young people who grew up in the US, were educated there or served in the US military from expulsion pending new legislation.
The extent of Obama’s action has yet to be revealed, but the White House has said the order will be issued by the end of the year.
The Republicans, whose victory in this month’s mid-term elections gave them a comfortable margin of control in the legislature, have expressed fury at this attempt to get around them.
Some Republicans are working with Obama’s Democrat supporters on immigration reform legislation, and his opponents have warned that executive action could poison this debate.
Another risk that Obama runs, as he himself admits, if he takes the solo route is that whatever he decrees with a single swish of his pen can just as easily be repealed by that of his successor in 2017.
Today’s Obama also has another opponent of note: yesterday’s Obama. When the president still had hope of negotiating a compromise on immigration reform, he opposed using executive decrees.
In February 2013, when a young activist begged him to intervene to stop families being separated by the expulsion of undocumented travellers, Obama said he was powerless to act.
“The problem is, is that I’m the president of the US. I’m not the emperor of the US. My job is to execute laws that are passed,” he then declared.