WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers late last year rushed $1.5 trillion in tax cuts into law — the most sweeping rewrite of the tax code since 1986. Republicans assert that the plan will deliver stronger economic growth and substantial pay raises for the middle class. Democrats and most economists counter that the measure will overwhelmingly favor corporations and wealthy individuals and swell the budget deficit. Lily Batchelder, formerly an economic adviser in the Obama White House and chief tax counsel for the Senate Finance Committee, is a law professor at New York University specializing in tax policy.