Tear it up.

Tear up the settlement for the 9/11 workers and revive that rarest of government programs, one actually efficient and responsive to the needs of those it was supposed to serve.

That program was the federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. It disbursed more than $7 billion to 5,560 claimants, while generating overhead costs of only 3%.

The fund was prepared to continue indefinitely, rightly predicting that people might not fall ill until years after exposure to the Pit's poisons and carcinogens.

But such foresight and efficiency had no place in government.

Congress let the fund expire at the end of 2003, even though lawmakers had to know many more recovery workers would get sick and that some would die.

In place of this paragon of efficiency and its 3% overhead, Congress launched this new settlement fund, with overhead costs that could eventually exceed 40%.

That overhead is 40% of the $1 billion Congress allotted the city to resolve the lawsuits arising when the end of the original fund left victims with no other recourse.

The lawyers who will be walking away with millions say the settlement will now do essentially what the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund did, disbursing aid to victims in accordance to their proven need.

Only there will be a lot less money to disburse. And the victims will feel they were left with little choice but to accept a deal in which a third of the money goes to their lawyers.

For many of the victims, what is called a settlement feels more like a squeeze.

"They almost got you at a point of exhaustion," retired Fire Marshal Kevin Larkin said outside a hearing in Manhattan Federal Court on Friday. "What are you going to do?"

Larkin had come to the hearing hoping to get some sense of what the victims were getting. He instead found himself among a sea of suits.

"I never thought there would be so many lawyers," he said. "I thought it'd be a couple of lawyers and us."

By us, he meant his fellow victims, too many of whom are faring much worse than he is himself. He suffers from an impaired breathing airway, as well as a precancerous condition in his esophagus and nodules in his nose that required surgery.

Not that any of the lawyers asked about Larkin's health as he stood outside the courtroom in a blue windbreaker stenciled with "Forever In Our Hearts 9/11/01."

The lawyers defending the city have already pocketed more than $200 million in fees. They started out seeking to have the lawsuits tossed out of court and leave Larkin and the others without a penny.