President Obama has announced his commitment to draw down American forces in Iraq after seven years of combat. There will be 90,000 fewer troops in Iraq by the end of next year. But will the costs – financial, human, emotional – come down as the troops come home?

President Obama may soon face a new obstacle to his plan to reform health care: a growing pool of budgetary red ink. The White House Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office will release new estimates today on the size of the U.S. deficit.  Both agencies are expected to say the deficit will reach $9 trillion over the next decade, which is a $2 trillion increase from previous projections. We speak with Linda Bilmes, Harvard professor of public finance and co-author, with Joseph Stiglitz, of the book "The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict."

President Obama is making a priority of slashing the national debt in the coming years and he says some of the greatest savings come from pulling troops out of Iraq. But just how much money can be saved by a troop withdrawal? To answer that question, we turn to Linda Bilmes, Harvard professor of public finance and co-author with Joseph Stiglitz of the book The 3 Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict and a new book The People Factor: Strengthening America by Investing in Public Service.

$438 billion. That was the projected cost of the deficit in September of this year, before the word "bailout" entered the American lexicon and exploded the national deficit. Linda Bilmes is a lecturer in public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and she's been keeping her eye on the government’s mounting debt. She talks with John and Adaora, about how much we owe, and who we owe it to.

Read Linda Bilmes' story, "The $10 trillion hangover: Paying the price for eight years of Bush," in the January 2009 issue of Harper's Magazine.