okay, let s go off the record for just a minute. and allow me to be a bit sappy one day of the year. i m usually, of course, not that sappy. of course in fact, sort of a rough exterior. but, if you are a long-time member of our gretawire community and, of course, you pert be. you know that i really love the viewers of on the record and i love those who blog with us day in and day out on gretawire. greta wire is a fantastic community. would he no he each other. we blog about each other. sometimes saying really nice things, sometimes saying not some nice things because we get sort of all revved up about stuff from time to time. we are all human. but we all keep returning to gretawire because we have a bond. what is also fun though is that with our get numbers and bond we work together from time to time. remember super storm sandy and new york and new jersey:
a company we could not exceed the expectations of our customers unless we exceeded the expectations of our people. so, as a result of that even when we were a private company, we put in health insurance for 20 hours a week or more and that covers about 90% of all of our employees, now, obviously this is an expensive benefit. but we have proven over 20 years that reducing attrition and higher level of performance. if you look at our company s financial history two years in a row of record profits and revenue. i put a large part of that success based on the balance between achieving profitability and a social conscience and most importantly sharing our success with our people and linking shareholder value to the value for our people. and, you know, greta, this is very personal to me. i grew up in brooklyn, new york, in a family that lost its health insurance, we lived in federally subsidized housing and i saw firsthand the fracturing of the american dream when my family lost health insur
before. joining us from washington kevin knight and james schindler and here in new york alli silver. let me go first to you, kevin, you have got a master s degree, how is the job search? it s not really going at all, greta. the last thing i had was a job interview back in september. but, nothing since then. how you can you not you have sent out resumes since september? you have made heavy effort to get a job interview? after that one, that one i was really hoping for. it would have been a great position. and i have applied for a few things since then that some friends have tipped me off to. but at that point i m just kind of taking a break for this month, recharging my batteries a bit there are some opportunities coming in december that some friends have tipped me off to that i m going to apply to when they open up. aly, you were here on august 21st, you are part-time hostess at a diner looking for full-time work. any luck? yes, i actually had one job interview this past m
so did you know that ritz crackers are a food group? sounds crazy, but it s true in one part of canada. a mother learned that lesson after she was fined for not giving her kids a balanced lunch. she september h the canadian guidelines say they must include grains. so they gave her kids ritz crackers to supplement will lunches and slapped the mother with a $10 fine. she says that s crazy. so now you be the judge. was the day care center right to fine the mother? or are they just sticking their nose in the mother s business? go to greta wire and vote in our poll. if you like your doctor, can you keep your doctor. we ll talk about that. the sleep number bed conforms to you. i wake up in the morning with no back pain.
if you think there s an important issue i should take off the record go to greta wire and tell us about it. and it s no secret, the labor unions are obama s bffs. now the unions want out. they want a special favor from president obama. and if they get it, someone s going to have to pay for it, and you are that someone. now several republican senators are taking action to prevent that. john thune joins us. good evening. what is that the insurance companies want? not insurance, the union, i mean. the unions want to be exempted. they want to be carved out. they want their special back room deal from a reinsurance tax. it was a tax imposed on certain individuals to raise a certain amount of money to help pay for pre-existing conditions. so anybody in a self-insured plan would be required to pay