That is holding a News Conference in the state capital, austin, as texas battles floods affecting thousands of people. Fortunately, the death toll has not been extensive, that thousands of people have been made homeless and are in shelters the cause of record amounts of rainfall left by harvey. Meantime, the fema administrator is making it clear that the storm devastation stretches beyond houston. He gave an update today on the situation on the ground after harvey made a second landfall. , the effort oned houston. We have to understand there are multiple counties, over 50 counties impacted right now. We are continuing to watch the situation developed. Citizens in louisiana are not in the clear. Administrator long also says the ongoing operation is still in life saving mode. He is encouraging people to find ways to volunteer. Louisiana residents may catch a break. Weather forecasters say they expect less rain and wind from Tropical Storm harvey. Projecting 13 inches of rain across most of western louisiana, but say there could be six inches in some spots. Officials are also monitoring for isolated tornadoes. At least five deaths have been confirmed since harvey made landfall. European oil and Gas Companies are benefiting from supply gaps long after harvey crippled refineries along the u. S. Coast, according to the ceo of total, who spoke to bloomberg tv today. Nearly a quarter of u. S. Fuel output has been knocked out since harvey made landfall as a hurricane. The Largest Oil Refinery in the United States is shut down. The storm is estimated to make only a slight dent in the u. S. Economy. Reconstruction efforts are likely to be substantial enough to boost growth later this year, according to a Bloomberg Survey of economists. They estimate the storm will lower thirdquarter annualized gdp 0. 2 . Global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. I am mark crumpton. This is bloomberg. Is vowingsident trump the government response to harvey will serve as a model for disaster recovery. Estimated to reach up to 100 billion. Here with the latest on how the administration and congress will handle the aftermath of harvey, we arelong to do list joined by our washington correspondent at the white house , Senior Editor of economics in washington. Lets begin in texas. The president taking a bit of criticism initially for remarking on the size of the crowd and the turnout rather than talking about the victims. But can we say he had a good few days here . I think on balance he has done ok. There were some questions about high heels and other wardrobe issues. Julia not the president , of course. The first lady. We would have a completely different story there. But i think you have handled it pretty well. You tweeted today his extreme heartfelt feelings for the victims, which he did not do yesterday. And he is making all the right noises in terms of getting the help that the texans need to recover. I think he has on balance done ok. Julia lets leave the lou. Cials to Goldman Sachs lowering the probability of some kind of event over the debt ceiling, when you incorporate in the shenanigans that have to be included here in order to get Disaster Relief funding signed off. Is that the sense you are getting from d. C. , that the risks surrounding debt relief are listening . Fromu are hearing potential holdouts on a budget deal, a debt ceiling deal, that now is not the time to get involved in shutting down the government. Now is not the time for the u. S. To default on its debt for the first time, when you have so many people suffering in texas. You are likely to hear more talk about getting a deal together to make sure the government stays open and the u. S. Pays its debt. Even if it is a shortterm deal that just gets us to the end of the year or two the beginning of next year, we are hearing from republicans in the congress that they do not want to get involved in what would be a politically difficult situation, shutting down the government or having a debt default at the same time that people are suffering in texas. You are hearing more about a deal coming together. The president may have an opportunity to back down from his ultimatum over a wall, and have that fight another day, rather than making sure that he gets the money for the wall before the government shuts down at the beginning of next month. Sensitive issues. Talk to me about missouri and the speech from the president today on tax reform. He is expected to touchdown in the last halfhour to 45 minutes. What can we expect from the president . Assessing this speech i have seen headlines on this. Populism heavy and details perhaps light. Be very similar to some of the Campaign Rallies the president did at the end of the Campaign Last year. He will be able to focus on a couple of points, and have a speech that does not have a lot of details and is heavy on populism. He is here to talk about how the economy has been rigged since the last time there was tax reform, and how his new tax plan will help the middle class. He will probably talk about the ideas he has rolled out so far, including a child care tax credit and increasing the personal deduction. Some of the other parts of the tax reform plan have not been completed yet how to pay for it, whether it will increase the debt ceiling increase the debt. You can expect the president to steer clear of that and talk about helping American Families by reducing their tax burden, and allow congress to deal with the details of how to put itether a plan and make sure can pass the house and the senate. , you mentioned Donald Trumps tweets this morning. He also tweeted on north korea. I would have asked the question about whether this was the new john kellyrun white house, and we have a measured response as far as north korean provocation. Donald got a tweet from trump saying the time for talk is over. Then, we had the secretary come out and say diplomacy is still an option. What is the take on north korea and john kelly, it if this is the initial test for the chief of is this a fail . Isi do not think it necessarily a fail. Kelly has definitely imposed a new kind of discipline on this white house. We are not seeing leak stories coming out about dissension. We have all made the point that you cannot control donald trump and his iphone. There was an initial market reaction. I think this is just going to be a matter where they are going to have to clean up whatever mess donald trump makes with his twitter account, and people are going to have to move beyond it. But they are going to have to get used to this pattern of discipline and donald trump going on twitter. Great point about the leaking. That is a very valid point. Thank you so much. We are going to delve more into these issues later on. Say goodbye to our washington correspondent and the Senior Executive editor of International Government and economic. Coming up, President Trump will call for a major rewrite of the u. S. Tax code in missouri this afternoon. It is missing one thing details. We will discuss, next. Julia this is Bloomberg Markets, balance of power. I am julia chatterley. Lets check markets. Abigail is here with the latest. Abigail we are looking at games for the major averages. For the nasdaq, a rally, up about 0. 9 . The s p 500 up 0. 4 . The cow trailing, but both the dow and the s p 500 earlier weaving between gains and losses. This follows yesterdays intraday volatility on tensions around north korea. Open sharply lower, only to finish higher. Katie is saying her transfollowing in decaturs are improving. She wants to make sure the pullback is not going to deepen. We have not seen a record high in about three weeks. Action today. Ng the nasdaq up about 2. 3 , on pace for its best day since june 23 since june 21, the first day of spring. If we look at some of the stocks helping the nasdaq biotech index insight genomics up on the news that insight and eli lilly are going to resubmit a new drug application around a Rheumatoid Arthritis drug. The street is very bullish on the recent acquisition or announcement yesterday to buy 11. 9pharmaceuticals for billion dollars. This helps explain some of the health care strength. Lets look at the monthly chart of the dow. Moments ago, the dow was positive. Now, it is slightly negative. It flips between the break even spot. Nike and disney if those can recover, the dow will finish higher on the month. It is the last day of the month. Right now, something that stands out is the fact that the s p 500 is the one index out. Lets hop into the bloomberg and look. This chart shows the monthly move for the three major averages. Out of the election, we see big gains for all three. The s p 500 in yellow, down zero point 6 . Both the dow and the nasdaq higher on the month. But that is the worst monthly offormance since october last year, ahead of the election jitters. Odds the s p 500 can turn that around today and tomorrow you never know. Julia donald trump kicks off the campaign to overhaul u. S. Tax policy with a visit to missouri. It is the first of several stops in the midwest. Gary cohn, head of the National Economic council, aims to get tax reform done by yearend. But is that timetable too optimistic . We are joined by a tax analyst with data partners and former senate tax staff or. She is with us from new orleans. Great to have you on the show, henrietta. A lot of enthusiasm for the timetable from the gop establishment. That behind the scenes, the reality is somewhat different. Henrietta absolutely. Thanks for having me. When i speak with senior republican lobbyists, they are very pessimistic that tax reform of any kind can get done at all. In the last one he hours, folks have been more inclined to say some time between the first and second quarters of next year, maybe referencing memorial day. More importantly than that is whether you could even get the 51 votes that republicans need for such a bill. Based on what we are seeing and our ongoing conversations with staff, with vested interests, with everyone in between there does not look to be consensus on a bill at all this time. Julia is there any consensus . If we look at the comments made gary cohn there seems to be disbelief that Corporate Tax cuts will come. They may not be 15 , but they will come down. Is that an agreed idea . Henrietta lowering the corporate rate is the goal of democrats and republicans alike. That has been a tale that has been spun in every president ial election since 1986. The question is whether it actually can get done. To your early question about, is there consensus there just is not. The way i phrase it is that republican tax writers are everywhere, and therefore they are nowhere. There is disagreement on personal income tax changes, alterations to the mortgage interest reduction or the state and local tax deduction. Those are popular talking points for the white house, but there is a very difficult vote to take on capitol hill if you want to go to your members. Of them are in a handful of states that have very high property taxes. To have just the republican members say we are going to take that deduction away from you is a really heavy ask for the president to request of his voters and lawmakers. Julia i think the Company Getting factor is that republicans are going this alone. I just said in a message to clients today, lowering the mortgage interest induction is a commonly understood part of a comprehensive tax reform bill. It is just that nobody wants to take that vote in a vacuum. Asking republicans to do it while the democrats rail against them is a lot to ask. I do not think they can pull it off, frankly. Julia i want to point out we are showing you live pictures of missouri as the president is set to speak. Gathering as they wait the speech in the next hour. I want to go back to the point you were making. Advisor, economic laid out in the Financial Times things he think would be protected. Mortgage interest, Charitable Giving and contributions you think they believe do you think that to bring something together he has to follow through on those . Righttta that is the point. You make these promises that it will be protected. Is, i read as a tax tougher there will still be in mortgage Interest Deduction remaining, but you are not saying you will not alter it. Local taxes. Te and same with how you tax retirement and savings accounts. It is the marginal changes. You could make protected mean whatever you want. In conversations with tax staffers on the hill, they are talking about capping itemized deductions, which keeps a little bit of the mortgage interest induction, but not all of it. Once the homebuilders, the National Association of realtors, the mortgage insurers once they get their hands on this, the thread starts to come undone. They really want concrete details and saying it will be protected is very far from a specific detail, and very far from a document. Really, the staff once a piece of paper. Julia do you think Hurricane Harvey and the fallout will push back this timetable . You think, ifdo they cannot get comprehensive tax reform through . What is the best investors can hope for . Henrietta i think harvey is going to be an issue that members have to deal with as soon as they get that. The good news is that we have a hard stop on things like the government funding bill and the debt ceiling at the end of the month. The bleed effect of harvey does have a great natural stopping point at the end of september, leaving that with october, november, and december, going forward. Unfortunately, i think the theer picture that might this go your budget. I do not think there is potential for the republicans to come together and pass the budget. If you dont pass the budget, you cannot pass the tax bill with just 51 votes. What i see happening at the end of this year is the natural backstop, which is a package of tax credits that Congress Passes every year for individuals and businesses alike. For instance, the tax credit to put new windows on your house that are energy efficient. I see support from democrats for extending those tax credits to get relief to individuals, relief to Small Businesses and corporations. I suspect that once the republican partys party is clear on not being able to get through a budget, they will move toward a bipartisan solution, and we will get a robust extension bill. For investors will be a 30 Corporate Tax reduction. Julia that is a really pushed back timetable. Henrietta is the director of Economic Policy research. We are bringing you live coverage of President Trumps remarks on tax reform at 2 30 p. M. New york time. Julia this is Bloomberg Markets. Breaking news, a bloomberg school. U. S. Authorities are investigating chinas stateowned oil company sinopec for allegedly bribing officials in california. This is one of the largest foreign state owned companies being investigated by u. S. Prosecutors. If we get further headlines, i will bring them to you. President trump dismissed the idea of negotiating with north korea in response to kim jonguns test firing a missile over japan. He treated the u. S. Has been talking to north korea and paying them extortion money for 25 years. Talking is not the answer. Lets get to the state department and Foreign Policy reporter for bloomberg in washington. Wait to have you on the show. Tweet he said negotiations are still a possibility. What is the official line on the white house . That is a very good question and something we are all trying to figure out. swould say that jim mattis comments today were a little different than that. The time forwas diplomacy never runs out. That could mean all sorts of things. Increased pressure, diplomatic responses that did not strike me as a direct contradiction of the president s tweet. The secretary of state, rex tillerson, has been saying for weeks that the u. S. Wants to bring north korea to the negotiating table. He said the time was not right at that moment. They needed to see a better goodfaith gesture from the north koreans. The u. S. Wanted to bring them to the table for talks. President trump is saying talks are not the answer. The question here is, how do we interpret this . One is a blanket contradiction of the secretary of state. The other is the president being a little inarticulate in a tweet and saying he does not think the time for talk is right. The state department has since said they agree with the president that he is taking a tough stance. Another sign of missed signals and confusing messages coming out of different branches of the u. S. Government. Julia if you look at the response from the north koreans and kim jongun, he is suggesting this is a prelude to attacking guam, where we know there is a high u. S. Military presence. He is not coming to the table until he has proven he is a threat to the United States. Where does that leave the response . The suggestion is the United States is out of work here. How do they bring this man to the table . This has been the challenge for a very long time. We have spoken to a lot of people over the last 24 hours who said it does not matter what the u. S. Thinks. The problem is that kim jongun has no interest in talks right now. He is not going to come to the table for talks until he has the ultimate leverage, which would be his ability to strike the United States with a nucleartipped intercontinental ballistic missile. There is simply no way he is going to engage until he can inflict maximum pressure and maximum urgency into those talks. It has forced the Trump Administration back into the same conundrum we have seen for years and years. Julia we will see where the red line i