How do you know if a government policy is disastrous?

Well, there are any number of indicators, but the one that has a 100% record on predicting f%$#ed up policy is if it’s Dick Cheney’s idea.

Well, one of his ideas, back when he was Secretary of Defense was that “non core” military functions, like cargo transport, feeding the troops, and maintenance, should be outsourced to the private sector.

We all know how well that works. It’s so bad that even the US Air Force, the poster child for letting contractors run wild, is bringing its sustainment activities in house: (paid subscription required)

The U.S. Air Force is beginning to reclaim government management over upkeep of its large fighter, transport and, eventually, unmanned aircraft fleets, a move that could stunt efforts from companies looking to reap high profits from the maintenance business.

The Air Force is moving away from the contractor logistics support arrangements , popular in the 1990s, in which the government paid a premium for industry to handle product support duties, including oversight of touch labor and supply-chain management. During this post-Cold War period, the Pentagon downsized the workforce equipped with these skills in hopes that industry could oversee these tasks at lower costs and more efficiently. However, under Defense Secretary Robert Gates, this trend is reversing, and the government is now insourcing jobs in acquisition and sustainment; top Air Force officials say they expect savings.

If the policy has proved to be a disaster of such epic proportions that even the boyz from Colorado Springs^* have decided that the possibility of plush jobs after they retire as generals cannot excuse it, then you just know that Cheney was part of the original decision.

Of course, the private contractors maintain that they will be cheaper (they aren’t), and that the government will find it tough to attract talent (Nope, once you take this in house, you get the people who previously worked for the government, then went to work for LockMartBoeinThrup, but have now been laid off), but mostly, they are screaming that they want their money.

Sorry, but you had your chance, and you f%$#ed it up. You’re fired.

^*I mean the USAF, not Focus on the Family, though sometimes it is hard to tell them apart.