Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie said that Governor Jon Corzine’s widely touted $2,400 reward to businesses who hire someone who was previously unemployed is “a Band-Aid on a hemorrhage.”

Christie responded to Corzine’s plan in a press conference call half an hour before the Governor touted it at a news conference this afternoon.

The program, which will be funded by $8 million in discretionary federal funds, requires that the job pays at least $15 an hour and that the employee is held onto for at least six months.  It’s similar to a program the state instituted last year that ran through its alloted federal funds.

Christie, who has come under attack by Democrats for saying he would reject some federal stimulus funds during the Republican primary, said he had no problem with Corzine taking the funds for the program but said that it would do nothing “to fix our underlying economic problems.”

“He’s just trying to get through the next 49 days and actually look like he’s doing something when for four years he’s been driving New Jersey into the economic ditch,” said Christie.