Independents and Republicans in Western Pennsylvania, interviewed on the street and at meetings with House members home on recess, are growing increasingly concerned about the cost of military operations in Iraq, which now average more than $6 billion a month.

To be sure, many of the voters at the congressional events asked questions that hit closer to home: What is Congress going to do about gas prices? Will the president's tax breaks for small businesses be extended? Will there be more money for veterans' health care?

But when asked in interviews there and in other places about the job performance of members of Congress and the president just six months from the mid-term elections, many who have voted Republican in recent years immediately said they were disquieted by the rising cost of the war -- both in dollars and in casualties.

The cost underlies the more practical pocketbook concerns, they said, because they see the cost of stabilizing Iraq and fighting the insurgency as draining funds that otherwise would be available for domestic needs.

"It's time for them to come home; I don't think anyone thought it would be this long," said Marge Coddington of Friedens, Somerset County -- a Republican who voted for President Bush in both elections. "We could be using the money here right in this area -- there's a lot of people who need help and they're not getting it. ... I have a girl who works for me who has no health insurance -- it just irks me."

The complaints came as a handful of prominent U.S. generals took the unusual step of calling for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and a week after a national AP-Ipsos poll showed -- for the first time -- that a majority of voters would prefer to see Democrats in charge of the situation in Iraq.

For Republicans like Abraham Moosa, a Pittsburgh financial consultant who attended a session with U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart at a Northern Allegheny Chamber of Commerce meeting last week, the question becomes whether Congress can justify paying for things like extending the tax deductions for college savings accounts or the reduced rate on dividends when they are saddled with war costs.

He said he has been baffled by the Republican leadership's decisions on Iraq and is now worried the administration will invade Iran.

"Our boys and girls are dying.... It's costing us a lot of money and for what? What did we achieve?" Mr. Moosa said of Iraq. "There are dictatorships all over the world -- are we going to clean the whole world from dictators?"

Though Mr. Moosa said he was unlikely to turn away from his party this fall, concerns about the war's toll have opened the minds of other Republicans like Kenneth A. Noble, who recently left the Marine Corps after serving for 21 years and now directs security at the U.S. Steel Building.

Mr. Noble was attending a Monroeville Chamber of Commerce luncheon with Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, last week.

"I'm concerned about the way the war is going and how they're taking care of veterans," said Mr. Noble, who said he has been helping veterans injured in Iraq navigate the VA system and are facing more "hassles" lately, he said.

"My biggest concern is the stabilization," Mr. Noble said. "It's a problem of the Congress, the president and everybody combined not doing exactly what it takes to get this done and over. ... I don't think there's a solid plan."

"Maybe I should consider a Democrat," Mr. Noble said, "I'm registered Republican, but I'll take a Democrat at any time that I think that might work out."

Republican Earl Hackney of Rochester, Beaver County, who was at Beaver Valley Mall during a senior event attended by Ms. Hart, said he believes the frustration about the war is certain to cause difficulties for his party this fall.

"I don't like the war, I'll tell you that much," said Mr. Hackney, who has a grandson in the army. "The money could be better spent. ... And many, many people are not happy. They're going to have some trouble."

The Republicans may face particular difficulties among the legions of Pennsylvanians who tend to split their tickets and have helped Republicans like Sen. Rick Santorum and Ms. Hart get elected.

One of those is David E. Newswanger of Somerset, who is registered as a Republican but voted for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., in 2004.

"I've come to the point now where I think we ought to be out of there," said Mr. Newswanger about Iraq. "I'm not old enough for Social Security yet, but it worries me that they're always spending money for this.... The thing that concerns me is -- is there going to be money there for Medicare and all that?"

Eugene Leagle of Ross, a 76-year old Democrat who voted for President Bush said the war's cost has made him deeply regret his swing toward Republicans.

"What are they actually doing over in Iraq, except paying a lot of taxpayer money?" said Mr. Leagle, after a session with Ms. Hart at a senior center where some constituents urged her to block the President's proposed budget cuts for social programs such as senior housing.

"I think they ought to round up all the troops put them in one area of Iraq, take their people and put them in control and bring our people home," he said.

Of members of Congress, Mr. Leagle said, "I don't think any of them are doing the job they were elected to do."

But a common theme among many swing voters and Republicans who expressed frustration about continuing involvement in Iraq and its price tag, said the Democrats have not outlined a better plan for extracting the U.S. from Iraq.

"They're not offering anything better -- not right now, anyway," said Mr. Noble, the former Marine.

Some Democrats outside of elected office have acknowledged as much.

Former Democratic Sen. Gary Hart, who has recently written a book on national security, said he viewed the Democrats' lead in recent polls on national security issues simply as a reflection of unhappiness with the Republican Party.

"Democrats must be more concrete and specific on what their overall national security policy and plans are, and more specifically what their exit strategy from Iraq would be," Mr. Hart said.

"Too many Democrats, I think, are taking the default position that all they have to do is wait for the Republicans to fail and then people will vote for us. That's bad policy," he said.