Considering that the guys are signed up to die for you if necessary, let them have their damn strippers if they want.
We're only talking less than the cost of discharging a single instance of one weapon here after all.
US military personnel investigated for splashing $96,576 on strippers
An investigation is underway as to whether US military personnel tried to get the government to foot the bill for a total of $96,576 (£63,268) spent on strippers in Las Vegas. The Pentagon's Inspector General is also looking into claims the personnel tried to expense $952,258 (£623,838) spent in casinos. The claims first …
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Friday 25th September 2015 07:04 GMT oldtaku
Just strippers? The Pentagon contractors in Afghanistan expense child sex slaves. As do the Afghani commanders, government officials, and officers down the line. Paid for by US taxpayers since it's just part of their rich cultural heritage.
That may change now that NYT's pulled the rock off it, but 10 years of that makes strippers look pretty tame.
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Saturday 26th September 2015 21:30 GMT ecofeco
x7, the Iraq/Afghan war was the most corrupt war in history.
4 TRILLION dollars down the rabbit hole and we never did find any nukes. That kind of money builds a lot of schools and roads and municipal infrastructure even in this day and age.
Billions alone went to Halliburton in no-compete contracts. You know, Cheney's old (now current again) company?
The U.S. and Britain's military industry is so fucking corrupt it will be the gold standard for the next 1000 years. It will also be the cause of WW3.
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Friday 25th September 2015 07:31 GMT Kharkov
And the first step towards Idiocracy has been taken...
Wow, there's a significant number of soldiers who think it's ok to get lap dances and probably... additional services (ahem!)... but there's no reason to have a large and very public debate about Military funding and waste in the U.S.
Nope, none at all...
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Friday 25th September 2015 07:34 GMT Drefsab_UK
No one is saying that the armed forces of any nation shouldnt be allowed to enjoy the company of strippers. However they get a reasonable wage while in the forces and most of their living expenses are taken care of so they tend to have more disposable income that most.
The point of this is that they used the government expenses cards/accounts to pay for it it.
I don't see it as any different than here in UK with the MP expenses issues. If they had been paying for strippers out of their own sallery then fine I hope you enjoy the show. But if then claimed it on expenses and asked for the tax payer to cover it that would not be acceptable in my eyes.
Expenses should only be for job related costs incured and not for personal enjoyment / entertainment. I wouldn't get away with it in my work place so why should any other job sector / carreer path be any different?
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Friday 25th September 2015 14:34 GMT Dave Hilling
Re: Young stupid kids with a company issued credit card.
Actually no everyone gets a card if you travel. I agree its stupid, but its to cover hotel rooms and food when traveling. I always felt it should be handled by higher ranking people etc but the logistics of it would be a nightmare. I for example went to Japan for a month my card didnt even have enough of a limit to cover my hotel room (on base) for the whole time we were there. So I bought my food personally which your not supposed to have to do, but whatever I had the money. The whole purpose though is so guys making a whopping 1200 a month do not spend all their money and more on hotels etc when traveling for the military same idea as any company you work for when you are traveling for them.
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Saturday 26th September 2015 12:01 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Young stupid kids with a company issued credit card.
"If all the US defence (yes damn you MSFT it is defence) budget was spent on booze and hookers the world would probably be a better place."
This hippy argument is basically how bonobo society works; they really do make love not war and it seems to work for them. But they are not the dominant hominid species on the planet, in fact they are endangered. Which tells you something.
I would love to be a pacifist, but first I would need to kill all the psychopaths.
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Friday 25th September 2015 14:29 GMT Dave Hilling
Misleading
OK these articles are always misleading...first the government didnt pay for strippers and gambling most likely unless the soldiers commited fraud. Every soldier is required to get a government credit card to cover travel expenses. There are STRICT limits on what you can charge back to the government. Anything they do not cover you are responsible for personally. They tell you over and over not to put anything that cant be charged back onto your card if possible.
Now that said a bunch of 20 somethings in vegas probably dont listen when drunk and horned up. I never did any such thing but I knew others who did. In fact I know one guy who got kicked out for using his gov card to buy his engagement ring for his fiance...the government did not pay for that ring but it was a violation of the acceptable use of the card there is a clear distinction in that he violated the rules but the government did not pay for the item purchased and he was still responsible personally for paying it.
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Friday 25th September 2015 16:48 GMT Josh 14
Re: Misleading
I was in the US Army when the GTC (government travel card) was first rolled out, and as others have already said, there were numerous briefings about the coming cards being issued, and that they were to ONLY be used for authorized military expenses. Travel, lodging, food, etc... They even had briefings about where you couldn't use the cards for normally authorized expenses, since the coding on the business would throw up flags on the billing statement, such as getting dinner at a bar. Even if you were only buying food, it was a drinking establishment, and you couldn't use the GTC in one.
That said, my barracks roommate was immediately talking about how he was going to buy himself a new computer using the card, so who knows how brilliant many of the young crowd are...
More recently, I was relocated along with a number of other part time military members to support a mission. While we were away from home, we were authorized housing expenses, but with understandable restrictions.
A few years later everyone who was on the trip was being investigated because at least one person had been billing for a luxury condo in the area while we were there, and ended up being charged for embezzlement and from what I eventually heard, and one spent some time in prison for his efforts.
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Saturday 26th September 2015 20:20 GMT Mark 85
Re: Misleading
I was in the military before CC's were issued. This was back when a buck private made $80 a month (late 60's). If we traveled, we got "per diem" which was a calculation on where we were going and cost of hotels and food. If taxis were needed, that was figured in. Then the day before you left, they handed you cash for that amount. No record keeping needed. If you got by cheaper, you pocketed the difference. If you spent more, it came out of your pocket. If you got mugged or robbed, tough... be more careful next time. In some ways it was a better system, in other ways, not so good.
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Friday 25th September 2015 16:35 GMT Erik4872
Corporate Expenses 101
First off, yes I'm a prude, but I've never been to a strip club ever, and I'm 40. (Being happily married tends to alleviate that need.) *How* do you spend almost 100K on strippers? I can maybe see thousands on bottle service, but surely the more...personal...transactions require cash?
Second, this is why it's always best to establish personal credit, pay your expenses on your own card, and wait for reimbursement. I've had corporate Amex cards before, but I only use them when I have to buy last minute multi-thousand dollar plane tickets or similar. 20-somethings in the military probably can't do that; especially in the lower ranks you make very little once living allowances are factored in.
I know the few times I've used those corporate cards for anything, I've had to pay the bill anyway, -and- do extra paperwork to exclude anything that wasn't an allowed expense from my final payment. Plus, I can see how this goes undetected for a while. I was once summoned halfway around the world on an emergency basis for 2 weeks and the tab got pretty big after a while, yet things still continued to be approved. It's only when they start auditing that they find things. Same goes for my company's current expense policy -- almost everything is accepted, subject to a high percentage of audits and very public examples made of rulebreakers (immediate firing if it's severe enough.)
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Friday 25th September 2015 18:58 GMT Josh 14
Re: Corporate Expenses 101
The second note about using the expenses as an opportunity to establish personal credit are well made, if you are working for a corporation that allows it, but the US military specifically frowns on doing so. They want to be able to directly track, and pay, any officially authorized expenses on the issued card.
Yes, the paperwork for explaining it is still required, and yes, it's a royal pain in the rear. Especially when they get confused and try to say that you're not on orders to be somewhere that the expenses are authorized, or forget to process the payments to the card while you are there, and you end up hitting the limit.
I've even seen this happen to senior officers while deployed and the finance clerk does something screwy. The next thing you know, the officer is getting nasty calls or emails while *still* working in some rat infested part of the world, often then hitting the limit of the card as well. But heaven help you if you pull out your personal card to cover the gap until the Finance people pull their heads out of their rears...
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Saturday 26th September 2015 13:42 GMT Tim Almond
Compared to an F35?
The only reason for dealing with this is to discourage others from doing the same and spending the whole defence budget on strippers. In reality, $96K is "who cares" money in government. I can think of far worse ways that governments spend far more than that. What did it cost us to arm and train some anti-Assad rebels in Syria who just handed over their gear to ISIS at the first opportunity?
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Saturday 26th September 2015 21:35 GMT Loud Speaker
Re: Compared to an F35?
I believe it was the US military that observed: "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon, you are talking about big money ..."
I am with the guy who said "if they spent the whole budget on strippers, the world would be a safer place" - but strippers might charge a bit more.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
