White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Wednesday said the lack of Republican support for health care reform legislation by Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) does not preclude the panel from approving a bipartisan bill.“I don’t think the president looks at today as the end,— Gibbs said. “I think Republicans certainly on the committee will offer amendments to change the bill. And we hope in the end, that they’ll hear what their constituents are saying about the need to address the skyrocketing costs of health care reform.—Gibbs said Obama believes the legislation is “an important building block— that “gets us closer to comprehensive health care reform.—But Gibbs declined to say whether Obama likes the legislation. And the president huddled with one of the Baucus bill’s chief Democratic antagonists — Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia — soon after Baucus unveiled his legislation Wednesday afternoon.