WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama conferred with congressional Democrats today in a Capitol Hill visit certain to address immigration, spending issues and questions about the new health care law.

Obama met first with House Democrats who presented the president with a birthday cake; Obama turns 52 on Sunday. Later in the morning, the president was huddling behind closed doors with Senate Democrats.

The session comes just days before lawmakers leave the capital for a six-week recess and the prospect of facing constituents back home at town halls at a time when polls show Congress being held in low regard.

The first major rewrite of immigration laws in a generation and legislation to keep the government running without interruption are paramount issues for Democrats. So is the president’s contentious health care law, with uninsured people able to start shopping for a health plan on Oct. 1.

Provisions of the law that still baffle many Americans kick in on Jan. 1 although the administration announced earlier this month that it would delay a key requirement that employers with 50 or more workers offer affordable coverage, or face fines.

As Obama presses his economic agenda across the country, he’s playing one chamber against the other in Congress, hoping Americans will hear his calls for compromise and conclude it’s not his fault that little is getting done in Washington.