There are a lot of things in this world that scare me.

Earthquakes in Japan. Nuclear meltdowns. Crazy dictators who kill their own people.

But something that really frightens me is happening in my own country.

I learned recently that House Republicans want a number of cuts to the national budget, many of which are aimed at my favorite kinds of people: young children and their parents — especially mothers.

Are you ready for this?

The cuts include:

* $758 MILLION from Women, Infants and Children (WIC), a program that provides food to low-income families.

* $210 MILLION from Maternal and Child Health block grants, which provide medical care for pregnant women and their babies.

* $156 MILLION from Center for Disease Control funding for immunizations and respiratory illnesses, meaning fewer children would get vaccinated against diseases like whooping cough and measles.

* $1 BILLION from community health centers, where about one-third of the patients are young children.

It would also take another $1 billion from Head Start, the agency that discovered my daughter’s vision problem. If not for Head Start, Angie’s amblyopia and astigmatism would have gone undetected and may have resulted in permanent vision loss. My child might have gone blind.

Besides child health screenings, Head Start also gives price breaks to working parents who can’t afford quality child care. I have friends who rely on that aid. What happens to them if their local Head Start branch shuts down? Where will their kids go?

It doesn’t stop there.

President Obama wants to cut $2.5 billion from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps families pay their heating costs. That’s half the agency’s yearly funding. More than 8 million families (63,000 in Maine alone) get assistance from this agency each winter. How are they going to pay their oil bills next year?

I hear politicians talk about so-called “entitlement programs” like they are something we should feel lucky to have. Is food an entitlement? Gas prices are up and so, in turn, are food prices. Both are predicted to rise this summer, but the House Agriculture Committee has suggested food stamps as the next program to cut.

That’s bad news for me, and probably for you, too, since 40 million of us receive food stamps. I’m a single mother going to graduate school in hopes of getting a better job. I rely on this program to help pay for groceries while I’m in school.

It appears that health care is an entitlement, too. I just got rejected for low-income medical coverage for the second time in two years. The first year, it was because I made $78 a month too much to qualify. This year, the state worker who processed my application said I had too much money in my savings account and my car was too nice. My car is a 10-year-old Mazda with a broken air conditioner, a busted suspension and a rusted underbelly.

Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

The state worker who denied my application said I could go blow the money in my bank account and then reapply, but I declined because it seemed foolish. Perhaps I should have taken her up on that offer, because if this budget passes it’s going to be nearly impossible for me to find health care.

I understand that the national deficit is huge. I realize that my country is going broke and we need to change the way we spend tax dollars. But I don’t understand why women and children have to be the first targets. Why are we the ones getting thrown under the bus, while corporations like Exxon Mobile get billions in tax breaks? Corporate profits are at an all-time high. General Electric earned $14.2 billion last year but paid no federal income tax. Why aren’t they contributing?

As a matter of fact, General Electric claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion. If the company was made to pay that amount, which it is obviously capable of doing, the revenue would be enough to save Head Start, one of the most reputable and comprehensive children’s programs this nation has ever known.

It would be enough to help Americans heat their homes next winter, put food on the table or protect their children from disease.

Maybe Angie and I are lucky to have the few “entitlements” that we have. Maybe we should count our blessings. Because from where I’m standing, it doesn’t look like we are going to have them much longer.

Wendy Fontaine’s “Party of Two” column appears the first and third Sundays of the month. Her e-mail address is: [email protected]. Follow Party of Two on Facebook and read her blog at PerseveringParents.com.