English

Verb

rob Peter to pay Paul

1. (idiomatic) To use resources that legitimately belong to or are needed by one party in order to satisfy a legitimate need of another party, especially within the same organization or group; to solve a problem in a way that makes another problem worse, producing no net gain.
   • 1838, Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country (London), vol. 17, no. 98, p. 224:

     [I]t would be robbing Peter to pay Paul, for the government to pay a stamp-duty to itself.

   • 1991, Priscilla Painton et al., "Mere Millions For Kids," Time, 8 April:

     OMB decided that a large part of the money would come from other health programs for poor women and children. That penny-pinching tactic sparked an outcry. . . . Senator Christopher Bond of Missouri denounced the plan as pitting "one city's babies against another city's babies." Florida Governor Lawton Chiles, who chairs the National Commission to Prevent Infant Mortality, said it amounted to "robbing Peter to pay Paul."

Translations

References

1. ↑ http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/rob-peter-to-pay-paul.html