Wiktionary
vb. (context idiomatic English) 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.
Usage examples of "rob peter to pay paul".
I see that as a 'rob Peter to pay Paul' sucker game, with our taxpayers footing the bill.
Unlike Bert, who could cheerfully rob Peter to pay Paul, and then rob Paul to bet on football, Benita’.
The Weather Control Complex found itself in the position of having to rob Peter to pay Paul&mdash.
Because of a law of diminishing returns, it was impossible to rob Peter to pay Paul.
Which means they can concentrate a real strategic reserve, not just rob Peter to pay Paul, pulling units out of the line to plug in again elsewhere.
There had followed a religiously-inspired revolt against the Climate-Control Board which, while it always had to rob Peter to pay Paul, had at least gone some way to eliminate droughts.