When Hurricane Sandy made landfall on October 29, 2012, The New York Times posted an opinion piece titled, "A Big Storm Requires Big Government". The piece argued that FEMA was needed in natural disasters and alleged that statements by Mitt Romney might be taken as supporting cuts to the agency. Romney refused to comment on The New York Times' opinion of his positions. Some commentators had previously suggested that Romney's refusal to rule out cuts to FEMA (should Paul Ryan's budget plans be implemented) was evidence Romney plans to cut FEMA's budget by 20 to 40 percent. President Barack Obama has proposed a 3 percent cut.
