President Obama recently announced a plan to provide two years of tuition-free community college, but qualified that statement by adding, "Now, there are no free rides in America."

The qualification was clearly necessary because, according to White House estimates, this "free" college is going to cost federal taxpayers $60 billion over ten years. Add to that the $20 billion the states will need to provide, and now the grand total equals $80 billion, as was noted in The Washington Examiner.

Obama is slated to provide a cost breakdown for this plan in next month's budget and discuss the plan more during his upcoming State of the Union address.

Townhall.com outlined some of the key problems with the president's "free" college plan Friday in an article titled, "Six Things Obama Didn't Tell You About His 'Free' College Tuition Plan."

Besides it not being free after all, community colleges will be drowned in red tape as each school will undoubtedly be put through the rigmarole of endless federal paperwork.

There are also these factors regarding the failures of education nationwide: high schoolers are already ill-prepared when they enter community college and find themselves taking remedial courses, thus causing Obama's plan to essentially become "nationally funded 6-year high schools." Plus, the track records of those colleges show failure in students completing the courses the voluntarily signed up for.

Two other factors noted by Townhall would be government-subsidized college inevitably driving the cost of tuition up at community colleges and public institutions choking out private sector solutions.

But as The Examiner points out, Obama will surely meet resistance as he faces a new, Republican Congress who believe this decision belongs to the individual states.

Of course, there's always the executive order.

This article has been updated.