William Taft actually said...
The issue is not now whether we ought originally to have begun this investigation, but it is whether, having expended a very large part of the necessary amount to do the full work, we ought to break it off for lack of a comparatively small additional appropriation.
Context
Message to the Congress Recommending Appropriation for Prosecution of Work of Removing the Wreck of the Battleship Maine
08/20/1911