The administration of John F. Kennedy enacted their first tax cut in 1962 that combined investment credit with several reform measures. Scholars have focused on how it passed through Congress as a tax cut ; this paper illuminates how the reform measures, taken from the "one package" comprehensive tax reform plan discussed in the 1950s, was doomed. The Treasury Department and the House Committee on Ways and Means wanted to accomplish a comprehensive tax reform to make the federal tax system simpler, more equitable, and progressive. However, their compromise with Kennedy's economic advisers and vested interests killed their ideal tax reform.