Language: en
Meaning: (idiomatic)To useresourcesthatlegitimatelybelong to or are needed by one party in order to satisfy a legitimate need of another party, especially within the sameorganizationor group; to solve aproblemin a way that makes another problemworse, producing nonetgain.1838,Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, volume17, number98, London,page224:[I]t would berobbing Peter to pay Paul, for the government to pay a stamp-duty to itself.1865, Henry David Thoreau,Cape Cod, Chapter VIII. "The Highland Light", page 140.Perhaps what the Ocean takes from one part of the Cape it gives to another,—robs Peter to pay Paul.1991April 8, Priscilla Paintonet al., “Mere Millions For Kids”, inTime[2], archived fromthe originalon30 June 2013: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."2021July 15,Boris Johnson,The Prime Minister's Levelling Up speech[3]:[…]and so levelling up is not a jam-spreading operation, it’s notrobbing Peter to pay Paul, its not zero sum it’s win win for the whole United Kingdom and so here is the plan for levelling up.
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