Think about this one for a minute - if companies paid for this type of stuff, they would expect to have a say on exactly where you live. Not "you need to be within driving distance of the office" but more like "you need to rent next door to the office". Yes, there are very good reasons the cost of commuting is left in employee hands to decide.
That seems a bit slippery-slope, compare: "Think about this one for a minute - if companies paid for health insurance, they would expect to have a say in exactly what you eat..."
Companies are already indirectly paying via increased wages due to a smaller supply of possible hires, the difference is that it's harder for them to see and agree when an office+commute is inefficient. (Or at least, inefficient when ignoring hard-to-measure things like executive prestige or investor-relations or local tax breaks.)
Companies paying for health insurance is silly as well. We should get rid of it rather than compounding the problem with employer-provided commute. /shudders
