They really do want to spend us into oblivion.

(LA Times) — With each passing day, it seems, President Obama is facing more pressure to produce a jobs package that would make a serious dent in the unemployment rate.

Obama’s economics team is working up some new ideas, but time is running short: the president’s job approval numbers are tumbling amid growing public impatience with the weak economic recovery.

As Obama’s advisors consider the options, a number of elected officials, past and present, are coming forward with proposals of their own.

U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) is touting a plan she says would create 2.2 million jobs underwritten by eliminating certain tax loopholes and raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans. That’s a more ambitious package than anything Obama has advanced, but it would face a tough time getting through the Republican-controlled House.

Another set of ideas comes from Edward G. Rendell, former Pennsylvania governor and mayor of Philadelphia. Rendell has long championed major investments in bridge, road, sewer and port repairs. The idea is to create jobs that can’t be out-sourced while fixing up the country’s depleted infrastructure.

Obama has an infrastructure plan of his own. He has asked Congress to approve an infrastructure “bank’’ that would use $30 billion in public money to help attract private contributions that would finance needed public works programs.

“It’s a very good start,’’ Rendell said in an interview, “and it would help — but not immediately.’’

Rendell said it would take up two years for the bank to “ramp up.’’

A more surefire way to strengthen the nation’s long-term “economic viability’’ is a $200 billion a year public works program over 10 years, Rendell said. A proposal on that scale would create five million new jobs, more than a third of the number of Americans who presently lack jobs, he said.

As an incentive to states to put people to work right away, the government could impose a “use it or lose it’’ standard. The money would be yanked back if projects didn’t begin within, say, four months.