Military Funding Quotes
To a great extent, the same is true in our modern world.
Shortly after the Maine blew up in Havana Harbor:
This is a perennial problem whenever the Chief's of Staff want to cut any program. Even if the program is a failure or is no longer needed Congress fights cuts tooth and nail. Then they make speeches decrying government spending and especially waste, when the vast majority of the waste is in programs or operations upon which they have insisted.
In subsequent years military officers got around this restriction by privately expressing confidential opinions to members of Congress and the press. In the Iraq war for example most senior military officers felt that more troops were needed in Iraq. However, since the President decided on the final troop count only one official, the Army Chief of Staff, has publicly expressed the view that it was insufficient. He was retired early. The stricture still stands.
Advocating canceling one year of the tax cuts for the wealthiest people to pay for the Iraq War.