"This golf-cart fiasco perfectly illustrates tax policy in the age of Obama, when politicians dole out credits and loopholes for everything from plug-in cars to fuel efficient appliances, home insulation and vitamins."

The Wall Street Journal offered a tough and unbylined critique of a federal tax credit on high-mileage cars "that was part of President Obama's stimulus plan," and which is now being used "to buy that great necessity of modern life, the golf cart."

The federal credit provides from $4,200 to $5,500 for the purchase of an electric vehicle, and when it is combined with similar incentive plans in many states the tax credits can pay for nearly the entire cost of a golf cart. Even in states that don't have their own tax rebate plans, the federal credit is generous enough to pay for half or even two-thirds of the average sticker price of a cart, which is typically in the range of $8,000 to $10,000.

Yet in a story forwarded by reader Mac, Alice Gomstyn of ABC News suggests that the credit started with the "bailout bill that last year helped keep the U.S. banking system afloat also contained lesser-known provisions to benefit other industries, including the electric car business."

Under the Bush administration's Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, buying a plug-in electric motor vehicle can make a consumer eligible for a tax credit of at least $2,500 plus additional cash depending on a car's battery capacity.

In April, the Internal Revenue Service confirmed that "neighborhood electric vehicles" or NEVs -- a common term for electric-powered golf cars and other low-speed vehicles allowed on public roadways -- bought in 2009 qualified for the tax credit.

The Journal piece also has little use for the actual carts in question, which are not for golf but for tootling around The Villages and other small communities where people go to die.

Alright, so which one got their facts wrong?