The report detonated controversy that risked damaging the push to quickly pass the bill and threatened the viability of the complex process envisioned for eventually constructing a replacement system. "The headlines are terrible," said one senior GOP source involved in the health care process, describing the Congressional Budget Office's conclusions.

For a patient that just turned seven and has already survived numerous near-death experiences, the Affordable Care Act's prognosis is not so bad. "It's a little like a patient with diabetes," Dr. Mario Molina, CEO of Molina Health Care, a major insurer on the ACA exchanges, told NBC News.

Builders take note: The Trump administration is now soliciting design proposals and prototypes for a roughly 2,000-mile-long wall along the border with Mexico. U.S. Customs and Border Protection published two requests for proposals late Friday, which included the specifications it expects for an American-Mexican barrier meant to deliver on President Donald Trump's promise to build a "big, beautiful wall."

Yet these and other domestic programs are exactly where President Trump is expected to focus his proposed budget cuts due out Thursday.

White House chief economic adviser Gary Cohn called the CBO's analysis "meaningless" on "Fox News Sunday." "If you're looking to the CBO for accuracy, you're looking in the wrong place," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters last week.