This isn't true - defence is like 16% of Federal spending, and not even all of that is the military.

> The military can’t even say no, we’ve got everything we need to Congress, so sure why not.

And this isn't relevant either for this context. It's argued for some specific issues, such as production of main battle tanks, but the explanation for that is to maintain manufacturing capability.

Naval aviation is pretty clear capability requirement in the modern operating environment - it's how we'd defend for example Taiwan - and isn't due to the reasons you're saying.