This paper examines the role of the budgetary base in the executive branch's federal budgetary process, focusing on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The analysis calls into question a number of standard assumptions in the theory of governmental budgetary decision-making. These include the definition of the base, its immutability over the planning cycle, the functions that it serves, and the extent to which it, as opposed to the increment, is the focus of attention of budgetary actors. One important function of the base is to help coordinate fiscal and budgetary policy. The linkage between fiscal and budgetary policy results in a top-down influence on decision-making that is just as significant as the bottom-up influence of incrementalism.