Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz told federal workers to ease up on the holiday cookies. In a weekly bulletin, he advised them to eat less, try portion control, and other strategies that everyone already hears about all year long.
Veterans of many a War on Christmas are getting flashbacks, and it’s making them angry.
Dr. Oz says you’re eating too many cookies
According to Wired, former talk show host and magic bean peddler Dr. Oz has been sending out these “tips” to federal employees for weeks now under the headline “Crushing Cubicle Cravings.”
“We all love a fun cookie swap and potluck this time of year,” his most recent email said. “With several teams across CMS hosting holiday gatherings this month, I am sharing some strategies to help you make healthier choices—while still indulging in festive treats.”
“Set your intentions. Decide in advance how many treats you’ll allow yourself to enjoy and try to stick to that number. You don’t have to try every cookie on the cookie table.”
He also recommended eating off a small plate and taking breaks between bites. These may be the least original tips to appear in any email ever, but at least he’s not on TV telling millions of viewers that coffee extract is a magic weight loss miracle anymore.
However, his lack of anything new to say in the realm of health has convinced many on the left that their predictions about his usefulness as the CMS Administrator were correct.
“The epitome of a middle manager”
Democrats and most on the left who are old enough to remember the Obama years cannot help but point out the hypocrisy. Republicans have fought against many federal efforts to promote public health over the years under the “nanny state” line, accusing the government of being all up in their business.
Now, the government is coming for their Christmas cookies, and suddenly the right doesn’t care.
“The Trump admin is literally the nanny state that conservatives spent decades complaining about,” wrote journalist Mike Rothschild on X. “They want to tell you what you should wear on a flight, how many cookies you should eat, who you can watch on TV, etc. No Democrat has ever been this much of a busybody fussbudget.”
“I’m old enough to remember when Republicans had a coronary when Michelle Obama encouraged people to eat more vegetables and they walked around w/ Big Gulps in protest,” noted @lilly64.
“The Republican Trump nanny state is being over bearing and micromanging people’s personal lives,” wrote @PoliticsFan2005. “This is not freedom.”
“Republicans are the toxic coworker that’s in everybody’s business for no good got damn reason,” @groove_sdc declared.
Others feel that they’re not getting their taxpayer dollars worth out of Dr. Oz’s salary if this is the best he can come up with.
“Dr. Oz fixes ‘affordability’ issues in the US,” joked @hopeful_still.
“This is the epitome of a middle manager micromanaging pointless sh*t,” said @andrewrockwell.bsky.social on Bluesky.
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