Environ Mental: Remember when toilets used to flush?

I remember, because I am very, very old - no one knows for sure how old I am because I was born so very young - having an outhouse.  The outhouse was located quite a distance from the house. In summer it was important to have the outhouse at a safe distance.  In winter, however, the arrangement was not so convenient. I'm not talking about what they call winter in Oregon.  I'm talking about full-on Canadian "which snowy lump is my car?" winter. 

For most of my life I have grown up with toilets that flush.  However, over the last few years toilet tanks have become smaller and smaller.  This is supposed to help our environment by conserving water.  Many toilet tanks now use less than 3 gallons of water - a far cry from the old wasteful 5-gallon tanks we used to have. In their wisdom, our legislators have made it illegal to use the larger toilet tanks anymore.

The problem is that these toilets don't really flush.  I mean, they do sometimes, but mostly they don't.  You flush once, then you flush again, then you plunge it, flush once more, maybe twice, and voila, 9-12 gallons later you have simulated the flushed toilet experience using your environmentally friendly 3 gallon toilet.

I've tried the math on this several ways, and it just doesn't seem to work out.  But that's because I am not a legislator.  Legislators have a higher logic that allows them to see how toilets that use 9-12 gallons are really better for our country than those old 5-gallon tanks.  Which explains why, of course, they are most qualified to run our healthcare program.