The mouths of fools are their ruin; they trap themselves with their lips.

I think the above quote comes from the Bible. I’ve never read the Bible (and never intend to) so I guess I’ll never know. But I have listened to Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey, and forgive me for believing that it could easily refer to them. They are not yet ruined – politically (surprising enough) – but their own lips are surely setting the trap that may well one day lead to their long-awaited political ruination.

I’d be very perplexed if it didn’t. They recklessly behave like fools and they speak like fools.

I won’t dwell on their long history of foolishness as I could be bogged down writing a million words filled with example after example. There’s enough evidence elsewhere.

It’s the latest example I wish to focus on (which in itself should be enough).

We’ve all read about Joe Hockey’s budget woes (which have recently been pushed off the front page of the dailies – conveniently perhaps – by Tony’s pursuit of a ‘vote winning’ war). Tony Abbott tells us that our contribution of $500 million to war can carry on while the budget is in shambles:

He said it was important to keep the $500 million cost “in perspective”.

“That’s a significant amount of money but, in the budget of something like $400 billion a year, we can manage these things,” he said.

That was two days ago.

Only a week earlier Joe Hockey had:

… signalled more budget cuts are on the way, saying the Government has “no choice” but to look for new savings.

The move has been prompted by the failure to win Senate support for billions of dollars of budget measures and new spending on security and the defence mission in the Middle East.

So Joe Hockey is telling us that we can’t afford to go to war and Tony Abbott is telling us that we can. Joe Hockey is the more persistent of the two, today telling us that Labor needed to pass stalled budget measures to pay for Iraq war.

To Bill Shorten’s credit he asked Tony Abbott whether he backed Joe Hockey’s comments. There was, of course, no response. Tony Abbott would have looked a fool if he had answered the question, and still manages to look like a fool for remaining silent. Perhaps, in future, before he talks about our fiscal position he might want to confer with the Treasurer. Whilst I have no confidence in the Treasurer (or the PM) it would be a big plus if they trumpeted a consistent message. Seriously, do these fools know what they’re doing?

As you can see it’s easy to assume that the Bible might have been talking about these too men with the quote, which I will repeat:

The mouths of fools are their ruin; they trap themselves with their lips.

I am also unable to comprehend why the media in this country hasn’t asked the same simple questions as Bill Shorten. One says we can afford to go to war, while the other says we can’t. And the media swallow each comment without even thinking of saying; “Hang on, the other day the Prime Minister/Treasurer said… “

But can these fools ever be trapped with their lips while the media allows them to flap them about so thoughtlessly?