Veasey Conway/Harvard Staff Photographer Nation & World Linda Bilmes is doing the math Kennedy School budget analyst has made it her life’s mission to elucidate the heavy toll of war: ‘If we don’t account for something, we don’t value it.’ Max Larkin Harvard Staff Writer September 16, 2026 9 min read Part of the Profiles of Progress series At a session of the Senate Appropriations Committee in July, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers that the first six months of the fitful war with Iran had cost taxpayers an estimated $37.5 billion. Or not exactly — a little less, he clarified. The estimate included “MILPAY, O&M and other anticipated costs through September 30.” In a rancorou...